The automotive industry is one of the most disruptive industries of the next decade, and Huawei will invest strongly in self-driving software, the Chinese tech giant said Monday.

On April 12, Huawei held a global analyst conference. Xu Zhijun, Huawei's vice chairman and rotating chairman, explained Huawei's overall strategy at the conference.

He said Huawei has five key strategic initiatives for 2021. The first is to strengthen software development, improve the ability to update software, and identify investment opportunities in the field.

For example, Huawei will increase the development of the cloud sector, mainly because Huawei believes that the root of the cloud is software, he said.

He mentioned that Huawei will increase its investment in autonomous driving to promote the intelligence of the automotive industry, bringing long-term strategic opportunities for Huawei, and the most disruptive industry in the future will be in the automotive industry.

Xu said that Huawei's 2020 performance is in line with expectations. For future sustainable development, Huawei has further increased its R&D investment, which accounted for 15.9% of sales revenue last year.

2021 will be a year of continued challenges for Huawei and the beginning of gradual clarity on its future development strategy, he said.

At the recent 2020 annual report meeting, Huawei's rotating chairman Hu Houkun reiterated that Huawei's positioning in the smart car sector is that of a component supplier.

He believes that Huawei has the ICT technology to make competitive products in several key, fundamental subfields of future smart electric vehicles.

Huawei says it has built over 30 smart car parts