Huawei, Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung Electronics, and other major global telecommunications corporations are recruiting talent to lead next-generation businesses such as artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud.
On the 14th, industry sources said that Nokia appointed Justin Hotard, former head of Intel's data center and artificial intelligence (AI) institutional sector, as its chief executive officer (CEO) this month. Hotard is expected to start working at Nokia in April. During the last five years under current CEO Pekka Lundmark, Nokia's revenue has declined. In particular, last year, it lost a $14 billion (about 20.2 trillion won) open radio access network equipment contract with AT&T to Ericsson. Last June, Nokia acquired the optical networking equipment company Infinera for $2.3 billion (about 3.32 trillion won) to expand its data center business, which requires optical networking.
This month, Ericsson appointed Anthony Bartolo Bonijee, former CEO of the joint venture network software corporation 'Aduna' established with Google, Deutsche Telekom, and T-Mobile, as its representative. Bonijee's company creates communication platforms based on the cloud. Ericsson acquired Bonijee for $6.2 billion (about 8.95 trillion won) in 2021. In May last year, it entered into a partnership with Dell Technologies to transition telecommunications networks to the cloud.
Last August, Huawei's joint venture company MAXSTRO, established with Chinese vehicle corporation JAC, is reportedly increasing its workforce from 100 to 300 employees. This is said to be part of efforts to expand its workforce for developing MAXSTRO's electric vehicle model, 'MAXSTRO S800,' which will be unveiled in the first quarter of this year. Huawei is reportedly investing about 1.8 trillion won, which is 70% of its total research and development (R&D) investment, in smart automotive solutions.
Samsung Electronics hired Murat Akbaceh, a former Apple executive, as head of its North America AI Center R&D division last June. He was the overall head of Apple's AI assistant, Siri. Samsung Electronics is currently focused on applying AI technology to mobile devices and telecommunications equipment. Last November, it unveiled 6G (sixth-generation mobile communication) technology to optimize base station quality through AI.
According to market research firm Gartner, the global telecommunications equipment market was valued at $47.978 billion (about 69.7 trillion won) last year, and it is expected to decline to $45.682 billion (about 66.4 trillion won) this year and $43.038 billion (about 62.5 trillion won) by 2026. This decline is due to the completion stage of 5G (fifth-generation mobile communication) network construction in major countries, including the United States and Japan, leading to decreased demand for telecommunications equipment.
Last year, Ericsson's network institutional sector revenue was 158.27 billion krona (about 21.26 trillion won), a 7.7% decrease from the previous year. Nokia also posted a weak performance last year in North America and India, recording the same revenue of €21.138 billion (about 31.01 trillion won) as the previous year, with operating profit of €8.698 billion (about 13.13 trillion won), down 1.7%.
Samsung Electronics' mobile experience (MX) and network divisions reported revenue of 117.3 trillion won and operating profit of 10.6 trillion won, with revenue increasing by 4% but operating profit decreasing by 18%.
Song Young-geun, a lead researcher at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), noted that 'the global telecommunications equipment industry is making efforts to adapt new technologies, such as cloud, to existing telecommunications equipment for sales or to secure new revenue sources.'