Both France and Germany are considering using Huawei-manufactured components and base stations in their burgeoning 5G networks. Although opposition exists in both countries to cooperate with Huawei due to national security concerns, many of Huawei’s partners are European. Huawei has no serious competition when it comes to manufacturing hardware for 5G networks.
The race to build 5G networks and the struggle between China and the United States over who will have leverage over the technology will have an impact on how automation is adopted, how AI is commercialized, the time frames and regulatory burdens under which 5G will develop and the make-up of global value chains in the electronics and software sectors. The stakes are high: “Quite simply, [5G] will be the engine driving smart cities and smart factories, built on the massive digital foundations of big data and linked through artificial intelligence, or AI.”[1]