LIVE FROM HUAWEI ASIA-PACIFIC INNOVATION DAY, CHENGDU, CHINA: William Xu, president of Huawei’s Institute of Strategic Research (pictured), outlined the company’s ambitious vision to move from mere innovation to breakthrough invention with the goal of addressing the many challenges the industry will face in the next decade.

Xu said the under-fire company will make the transition to Innovation 2.0 by increasing funding for basic research at universities, building joint laboratories and making technological investments in a variety of areas.

In the past it focused on technological and engineering innovations to meet customer needs, he explained. “With Innovation 2.0, we will focus on theoretical breakthroughs and inventions driven by our shared vision for the future. Our efforts will combine industry, academia and venture capital. There is still a long way to go in our journey towards an intelligent world”.

Its vision, for example, he said aims to increase communications and computing capabilities as well as storage density by a factor of 100, and increase battery density tenfold.

“Huawei’s Innovation 2.0 is about open innovation and inclusive development,” he said, adding it will broaden its work with experts from around the world as it invests at least $300 million a year in university research.

Giving an update on its 5G business, Xu said it signed more than 50 commercial contracts and shipped more than 200,000 5G modules, claiming two-thirds of 5G base stations deployed worldwide are from Huawei.