Huawei Boosted Research Spending at Berkeley Before Sanctions, Documents Show

Individual grants totaled $2.2 million in 2018, up from $855,000 in 2017, the documents show.

Details of the arrangements were disclosed in a cache of correspondence between the university and Huawei released in response to a lawsuit The Information filed, accusing the school of violating the California Public Records Act. (The Information is represented in the lawsuit by attorney Paul Nicholas Boylan.) 

The disclosures provide a detailed look at how many companies, like Huawei, fund academic research at big U.S. universities. In exchange for financial support, companies receive advance notification of published research papers that cover areas they do business in, such as network security and 5G infrastructure, for example. 

Berkeley’s recent Huawei-funded research has covered an array of subjects, from artificial intelligence and machine learning to data storage and transmission to wireless security infrastructure.

Huawei also gets exposure to young engineering talent coming out of universities, who it sometimes ends up hiring.

Getting early access to published research is valuable to Huawei, which makes telecom equipment for big phone carriers as well as consumer phones. Federal law prevents universities from transferring sensitive technology without regulatory approval to companies from certain foreign countries, such as China. But getting early access to research papers is allowed. 

And Huawei has made it clear that it values that access. For instance, after transferring $500,000 to Berkeley’s data and security center last February, Huawei’s Silicon Valley research chief sent a note to the center saying: “We look forward to seeing the progress of your research.”

“They are very keenly interested in any benefits that can be provided to donors, whether it’s progress reports, briefings, etc.,” said Robert Shaw, program director of the export control program at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California, who studies academic corporate funding agreements and reviewed documents in this story. Shaw said the financial gifts allow Huawei to keep tabs on rapidly changing sectors of the tech industry. “I see a company that seems very eager to keep its pulse on this.”

In some cases—such as in its grants to UCLA—Huawei appeared to try to go further by seeking the rights to commercialize intellectual property generated by research, according to email records released by UCLA to The Information. But UCLA officials rebuffed the company, the records show. There’s no evidence Huawei representatives made such attempts with Berkeley, the documents show. (A Huawei spokesman didn't have a comment about its dealings with UCLA.)

Huawei is one of many corporate donors to Berkeley, which has received more than $1.3 billion in corporate donations since 2016 from companies including Google, Amazon and Intel, as well as Huawei. But while Berkeley often announces corporate donations, details of its arrangements with Huawei have long been kept under wraps, including individual grant amounts.

In addition to early access to published research, UC Berkeley also granted a handful of employees of Huawei’s Futurewei research team access to its Marvell Nanofabrication Laboratory in late 2018. That arrangement was terminated in June, documents show.

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Huawei’s relationships with U.S. universities have frayed in the past year, as the company has faced heightened scrutiny from the U.S. government due to concerns over alleged theft of trade secrets and accusations that the company helps Chinese government officials spy on customers. Last summer, Congressman Jim Banks and Senator Marco Rubio lambasted Huawei, saying in an open letter that the company’s research partnerships with more than 50 U.S. universities posed a threat to national security.

In response, many universities began to distance themselves from Huawei. Some, such as UCLA, cut all ties. Berkeley said it would stop accepting money under new grants but would continue to accept money under existing grants.

In a written statement, Berkeley’s assistant vice chancellor for public affairs Dan Mogulof said, “The decision to allow current projects to continue was made on the basis that 1) the indictments against Huawei, while serious, were still to be adjudicated, 2) that to date, Huawei and its US subsidiary, FutureWei had been responsible collaborators with the campus, and 3) that none of UC Berkeley’s projects involve sensitive technological secrets or knowledge, given that we only do fundamental, non-proprietary research, the results of which are subsequently made publicly accessible.”

Berkeley’s stance changed in late May, after the Commerce Department added Huawei and dozens of the company’s subsidiaries to the so-called “Entity List,” effectively barring the company from doing business in the U.S. Huawei responded with a letter from an attorney for its U.S. R&D lab, Futurewei, urging its dozens of academic partners around the country to continue the mutually beneficial relationship. “Our intent is simple, i.e., to give back,” the attorney wrote. (A Huawei spokesman notes that Futurewei is not subject to the government’s ban.)

The assurance wasn’t enough for UC Berkeley officials who worried about potential liability concerns from approving Huawei-funded research. On May 28, Berkeley’s vice chancellor for research Randy Katz emailed staff who had worked with Huawei to express his concern over the future of the relationship in light of the government’s actions.

“We are well aware that these actions create uncertainties with respect to continuing collaborations with Futurewei, which has proven to be a trusted research partner for Berkeley,” Katz wrote. “This is unfortunate.” 

A Huawei spokesman said the company “respects any university’s decision” on whom they accept money from.

The Trump administration’s sanctions prevent Huawei from selling its equipment in the U.S. while severely restricting the Chinese company’s ability to use American components and software. The government has granted a 90-day reprieve that allows a limited number of U.S. companies to continue doing business with Huawei. But it remains unclear whether or when Huawei will be allowed to resume regular business operations in the U.S., if at all.

On Tuesday, Reuters reported that the Commerce Department had received more than 130 applications from companies for licenses to sell goods to Huawei, citing anonymous government officials. Meanwhile, federal charges against Huawei alleging the company violated U.S. sanctions on Iran are pending. 

The increased regulatory pressure has also prompted Huawei to cut back its investment in U.S. research labs. Last month Huawei’s R&D lab laid off a large number of its Silicon Valley–based staff. A FutureWei representative, Michael Aday, emailed Katz on July 22 to break the news, records show. Katz forwarded the message to colleagues on campus with a blunt note: “As I expected, Futurewei sponsorships likely not to be continued.” 

—Juro Osawa contributed to this article