Huawei Technologies, the Chinese telecommunications giant blacklisted by the US, secretly funds cutting-edge research at US universities, including Harvard, through an independent Washington-based foundation.
Huawei is the sole funder of a research competition that has raised millions of dollars and hundreds of proposals since its launch in 2022 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, a division of the professional nonprofit organization Optica, which supports members’ research into light technologies such as communications, biomedical diagnostics and lasers.
