"Cafe Only 100... Recruiting Young Talent" Huawei Opens Shanghai Campus

Bigger Than Apple Park and Redmond Campuses Combined
Establishing a Mega R&D Center... Accelerating Talent Acquisition

Huawei, a telecommunications equipment company symbolizing China's "technology rise," has established a large-scale research and development (R&D) center in Shanghai. Notably, it has attracted attention by creating various office facilities and around 100 cafes to attract young overseas talent.

According to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post (SCMP) on the 15th, Huawei recently invested 10 billion yuan (approximately 1.946 trillion KRW) to establish the "Huawei Lianchuhu Lake R&D Center (Lianchuhu Campus)" in Qingpu District, Shanghai. The R&D center consists of 8 blocks and 104 buildings. Each complex, composed of laboratories, offices, and leisure spaces, is connected by an internal train system.

The 'Huawei Lianchuhu Lake R&D Center (Lianchuhu Campus)' completed with an investment of 10 billion yuan (approximately 1.946 trillion KRW) by Huawei in Qingpu District, Shanghai. (Source: SCMP)

The campus spans 2,600 acres (about 10.5 million square meters), making it larger than the combined size of Silicon Valley's Apple Park and Microsoft's Redmond campus in Washington state. Although some bridge construction and greening projects are still underway, the signage, internal roads, and train system within the Lianchuhu Campus have been completed. Yang Shoujing, the head of Qingpu District, stated at a press conference earlier this year that around 30,000 R&D personnel specializing in semiconductors, wireless networks, and the Internet of Things would relocate to this campus.

With the opening of this new campus, Huawei is expected to intensify efforts to attract outstanding external talent. Ren Zhengfei, the company's founder, mentioned in an internal meeting in 2021 that the goal related to this campus was to "create an environment suitable for foreign scientists to work and live." SCMP explained that Huawei established about 100 cafes within its Shanghai campus, which is also aimed at attracting young talent.

Facing U.S. sanctions and the need for technological self-reliance, Huawei is pouring astronomical costs into R&D. Last year, Huawei spent 164.7 billion yuan on R&D, accounting for 23.4% of its total revenue. The R&D workforce numbers approximately 114,000, making up 55% of the total employees.

SCMP evaluated, "The expansion of Huawei's domestic R&D infrastructure, despite being on the U.S. blacklist, shows that the company headquartered in Shenzhen is striving to overcome the U.S.'s oppressive technological sanctions."