Huawei may be funding research at Harvard, other top US universities through Optica Foundation competition

Huawei is the sole funder of a research competition that has awarded millions of dollars since its inception in 2022 and attracted hundreds of proposals from scientists around the world, including those at top US universities that have banned their researchers from working with the company, according to documents and people familiar with the matter.

The competition is administered by the Optica Foundation, an arm of the non-profit professional society Optica, whose members’ research on light underpins technologies such as communications, biomedical diagnostics and lasers.

The foundation “shall not be required to designate Huawei as the funding source or programme sponsor” of the competition and “the existence and content of this Agreement and the relationship between the Parties shall also be considered Confidential Information”, says a nonpublic document reviewed by Bloomberg.

The findings reveal one strategy Shenzhen, China-based Huawei is using to remain at the forefront of funding international research despite a web of US restrictions imposed over the past several years in response to concerns that its technology could be used by Beijing as a spy tool.

Applicants and university officials contacted by Bloomberg as well as one of the competition’s judges said they had not known of Huawei’s role in funding the programme until they were asked by a reporter.