Adamant about retaining its runaway lead in supplying smart driving systems in China, Huawei Technologies plans to invest as much as 80 billion yuan (US$11.7 billion) over the next five years to boost computing power essential for training and testing semi-autonomous cars.

The massive capital expenditure would enhance the reliability of cars fitted with the Huawei Qiankun ADS autopilot system, as the Shenzhen-based tech giant looked to expand its customer base, said Jin Yuzhi, CEO of Huawei’s intelligent automotive solutions business unit.

In 2026 alone, Huawei would earmark 18 billion yuan for research and development in autonomous driving, he added.

“Autonomous driving is an industry requiring long-term investment,” Jin said at an event in Beijing on Thursday. “Based on our investment of 18 billion yuan in smart driving this year, we will spend more than the combined expense of all other major [autonomous driving] solution providers.”

Computing power plays a key role in improving self-driving capabilities by processing data collected during training and testing of advanced driver assistance systems (ADASs).

Huawei’s Qiankun ADS platform surpassed 10 billion kilometres of autonomous driving early this month.

Autopilot features powered by the platform are widely used in mainland China. Huawei has partnerships with 25 car brands, and Qiankun has been installed in more than 50 models. A total of 1.7 million vehicles fitted with the system have been delivered to Chinese customers.