Chinese telecoms giant Huawei has announced it is to invest €70m in Irish research and development (R&D) over the next three years.

The company says this is to support its growing business in Ireland.

The R&D will focus on the areas of video, cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and site-reliability engineering (SRE).

The work will be supported by over 100 researchers, experts and engineers Huawei employs across its offices in Cork, Athlone and Dublin.

The company's Dublin R&D office is part of Huawei's European Research Institute.

The firm says its Irish R&D function is "an important part of the local technology ecosystem in Ireland."

"It has developed positive and long-standing relationships with startups, government agencies and third-level institutions", the company adds.

Huawei works with a number of Irish third-level institutions - including Trinity College Dublin, Dublin City University, University of Limerick, University College Dublin and University College Cork.

The Huawei logo is seen in its headquarters in Shenzhen, China | Image: FrankHoermann/SVEN SIMON/DPA/PA Images

It also partners key Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) centres such as Connect, Insight, Adapt and Lero.

In 2018, Huawei Ireland received a Technology Ireland award for its work with Adapt - which focused on a system that enables automatic in-scene detection and placement of advertisements in videos.

Guo Ping is Huawei's rotating chairman.

Speaking from Shenzhen in China, he said: "Ireland has outstanding talent and some of the best researchers in the world.

"Our R&D efforts are diverse in Ireland, like software in Dublin and hardware in Cork.

"Ireland has a great opportunity to continue to grow as an economy and become a technological hub. We are looking forward to strengthening our relationship with our local customers and partners."

Jijay Shen, CEO of Huawei Ireland, added: "Our focus is on long-term investment and building positive relationships with key partners in Ireland.

"This investment over three years will help us drive innovation and collaboration in Ireland."

Huawei announced a 23.2% increase in revenue last month, and employs more than 180,000 people across 170 countries and regions.

It has been in Ireland since 2004, with its business serving over two million people and employing around 500 directly and indirectly here.