Chinese smartphone company Honor has released devices that fold up to be nearly as thin as an iPhone.
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BARCELONA — Honor on Sunday pledged $10 billion in artificial intelligence investments over the next five years and announced a deepening partnership with Google, as the Chinese smartphone maker looks to bolster its market share overseas.
The investment plan, revealed at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, is designed to reposition the firm from a smartphone player into an “AI device ecosystem company,” according to Honor.
The Chinese company is somewhat of an upstart in the smartphone world, after spinning off from Huawei in 2020 when the tech giant was hit with U.S. sanctions. Since then, Honor has looked to expand outside of China and push into the higher-end part of the market where Apple and Samsung play.
The company has made some headway by releasing some innovative devices, including foldable phones, but it still remains a small player globally. Its smartphone market share outside of China stood at 2.3% in 2024 versus 1.7% in 2023, according to IDC data.
An Honor spokesperson told CNBC the money would go toward putting AI into hardware as well as next generation AI agents, which are often described as more advanced virtual assistants.
Another part of the investment will go toward creating a “platform for a wide range of AI devices.”
“This is not limited to our own devices, but also AI devices from different partners, so the different kinds of AI devices can talk to each other, and consumers can have more choices and seamless experiences,” the Honor spokesperson said.
A small portion of the investment will also be used to “prepare for the AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) era.”
AGI generally refers to AI that is smarter than humans.
Closer Google ties
On Sunday, Honor demonstrated a proof of concept “AI agent”. One example involved a user asking the agent to book a restaurant with specific requirements, such as the type of preferred cuisine and the distance from the user. The agent went ahead and made a reservation. Honor said it is working with Google and chip designer Qualcomm on developing its AI agent, but did not give a timeline for its release.
Meanwhile, Honor is also using the technology behind Google Gemini, the U.S. firm’s AI system, for the AI features on its latest devices.
Meanwhile on Sunday, Honor announced that it would commit to seven years of employing the Android operating system and security updates for its Magic series of flagship smartphones — becoming just one of very few vendors to pledge this. Google’s own Pixel devices and Samsung’s S series of flagship smartphones are the only other devices to offer similar support.
Android is the operating system created by Google. While the seven year support is not directly related to Google, it highlights Honor’s commitment to the operating system.
While there are many Android smartphone players, not all of them have as close a tie to Google as do Samsung, the biggest Android user in the world, and Xiaomi, the second largest. Honor is now joining that list.
“Honor’s deeper partnership with Google is very significant,” Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight, told CNBC. “To date, it has felt as though Google was keeping Chinese smartphone makers at arm’s length when it came to the most advanced aspects of Gemini AI, but this appears to put the Honor on par with Samsung Galaxy and Google’s own Pixel products which is quite a coup.”
