Huawei plans to widen its artificial intelligence collaborations with mainland pharmaceutical firms to cover drug development and clinical practice, a senior executive said, as the company pursues a foothold in the growing AI drug discovery market. William Zhang, president of Huawei's healthcare business unit, told RTHK on Wednesday that the firm expects more partnerships that span drug manufacturing, clinical application, and eventual deployment.

The executive noted that Huawei already has some collaborations in hospital clinical practice and is exploring additional opportunities, with current projects primarily involving domestic drugmakers.

The company provides tools for screening candidate drug compounds, backed by its Ascend and Kunpeng processing technologies. In May, Huawei announced a project with state-owned Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Holdings described as the industry's first production validation of AI drug research models developed independently and adapted to Ascend and Kunpeng technologies.

The report also mentions that Nvidia has established AI-related partnerships with drugmakers, including Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk.