Huawei secretly backs US research, awarding millions in prizes

Rogan said the Huawei donation had been reviewed by outside legal counsel and won the approval of the foundation’s board

Huawei Technologies Co., the Chinese telecommunications giant blacklisted by the US, is secretly funding cutting-edge research at American universities including Harvard through an independent Washington-based foundation.

Huawei is the sole funder of a research competition that has awarded millions of dollars since its inception in 2022 and attracted hundreds of proposals from scientists around the world, including those at top US universities that have banned their researchers from working with the company, according to documents and people familiar with the matter.

The competition is administered by the Optica Foundation, an arm of the nonprofit professional society Optica, whose members’ research on light underpins technologies such as communications, biomedical diagnostics and lasers.

The foundation “shall not be required to designate Huawei as the funding source or program sponsor” of the competition and “the existence and content of this Agreement and the relationship between the Parties shall also be considered Confidential Information,” says a nonpublic document reviewed by Bloomberg.

The findings reveal one strategy Shenzhen, China-based Huawei is using to remain at the forefront of funding international research despite a web of US restrictions imposed over the past several years in response to concerns that its technology could be used by Beijing as a spy tool.

Applicants and university officials contacted by Bloomberg as well as one of the competition’s judges said they hadn’t known of Huawei’s role in funding the program until they were asked by a reporter. A cross-section of applicants interviewed by Bloomberg said they believed the money came from the foundation and not a foreign entity.

There are 11 opportunities on the Optica Foundation website listing “Early Career Prizes & Fellowships.” All but the Huawei-funded competition — which awards $1 million per year, or twenty times the next most-lucrative annual cash prize on the site — list individual and corporate financial contributors.

A Huawei spokesman said the company and the Optica Foundation created the competition to support global research and promote academic communication. The spokesman said Huawei’s name was kept private to keep the contest from being seen as promotional and that there was no ill intent.

Liz Rogan, Optica’s chief executive officer, said in a statement that some foundation donors “prefer to remain anonymous, including US donors” and that “there is nothing unusual about this practice.”

Rogan said the Huawei donation had been reviewed by outside legal counsel and won the approval of the foundation’s board. “We are completely transparent with the funding and support of the Foundation programs with the Optica Foundation Board, the Optica Board and staff,” she said.