HUAWEI Technologies, the world’s largest telecom equipment maker, plans to invest 1 billion yuan (US$145 million) over the next three year to develop artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for its cloud business, it said Friday.

Zheng Yelai, president of Huawei’s cloud unit, also said the company planned to start offering public cloud service in South Africa, as it is “a strong base from which to develop cloud business in the African continent.”

Huawei established BU in 2017 to go into the public cloud service market in China, currently dominated by Alibaba.

Huawei already offers cloud services in China’s Hong Kong, Russia and Malaysia.

Huawei last week unveiled two AI chips that it said are more powerful than existing chips in the market in an attempt to boost its cloud business.

Two leading U.S. lawmakers has urged Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday to consider dropping China’s Huawei from helping to build next-generation 5G telecom networks.

Huawei’s chips and equipment have faced skepticism in a number of developed countries, with Australia saying in August that it would ban Huawei technology from its 5G network.

Huawei, the world’s largest maker of telecommunications network gear, has criticized the Australian ban.(SD-Agencies)