General Electric Co. has announced a partnership with Chinese telecoms equipment and smartphone maker Huawei to work on productivity boosting equipment and machines.
It’s part of the U.S. giant’s ambitious ‘industrial revolution’ plans, which aim to boost efficiency by integrating end-to-end intelligence an analytics with traditional machinery and robotics.
The partnership was revealed on Wednesday at an event in Shanghai, where they also announced the launch of an $11 million USD co-working space, designed to incubate startups in fields corresponding to the company’s vision.
GE forecasts $500 million USD in savings this year as part of their productivity push. The company is hoping to expand their software portfolio, according to a recent earnings call, predicting $15 billion USD in software-related revenue by 2020.
In October 2015 Huawei announced a $1 billion USD investment fund aimed at boosting innovation in both software and devices. The company also opened a developer-focussed platform named eSDK in the hope of improving efficiency.
The latest pairing between GE and Huawei could see the Chinese company adopt GE’s operating system, Predix, which is already used by a handful of state-backed companies and projects. GE will also have access to Huawei’s extensive product portfolio.