Huawei Technologies recently made an investment in XMOS, a British fabless semiconductor company and leader in intelligent multicore microcontrollers.
This marks the Chinese telecom device maker's first equity investment in a British technology company.
Apart from Huawei, Robert Bosch Venture Capital GmbH of Germany and Xilinx Inc. from the U.S. also participated in the strategic investment round. The three companies invested a total of USD26 million in XMOS. XMOS' valuation during this round of financing reached over USD100 million; however, XMOS gave no comment on the rumor.
XMOS said that the company will use the new funding to extend its market leadership in multicore technology for embedded applications by expanding customer support and accelerating new product development.
Huawei has formed a team to find similar investment opportunities with the objective of making two deals a year in Europe. Huawei's global development faced various challenges. In October 2012, the United States Congress published a report, stating that China's Huawei and ZTE threatened the national security of America. The Indian government had similar concerns, and Germany and Australia cancelled the bidding qualification of Huawei for some projects. However, the company was welcomed in Britain. In 2012, British Prime Minister David Cameron said that Huawei's GBP1.3 billion investment promise in Britain represented the country's open attitude towards foreign enterprises.
Prior to the investment in XMOS, Huawei already acquired two European companies. In 2012, the company purchased CIP Technologies in Britain and acquired Caliopa in Belgium in 2013. No financial detail was released about the two deals.
In addition, the Chinese company said that they will invest GBP10 million, which is about USD16.87 million, in U.K. university research and they plan to establish a research and development center in Bristol.