Huawei Cloud targets joint AI advances in SA

Cloud and AI together are key driving forces for industry innovation and economic growth. 

That was the message from Joy Huang, vice president of Huawei Cloud, delivering a keynote speech at the Huawei South Africa Connect 2025 summit in Johannesburg last week.

He outlined global leading AI industry practices to illustrate the theme of “Accelerate Intelligence, Amplify Success”.

“Africa is embracing historic opportunities for intelligent development, where cloud and AI have emerged as pivotal engines driving business innovation and economic growth,” he said. “Deeply rooted in Africa, Huawei Cloud is dedicated to offering AI-native cloud services. 

“By implementing the ‘Cloud for AI’ and ‘AI for Cloud’ strategies, we aim to expedite the intelligent transformation across industries in South Africa and throughout the continent, jointly advancing towards shared success in this AI era.”

Huawei South Africa Connect 2025, under the theme of “Accelerate industrial digital intelligence for South Africa, attracted over 2,900 participants, including South African government representatives, industry customers, and partner organisations. Huawei Cloud experts presented the company’s AI strategy and product innovations to South African industry customers, while sharing globally leading AI practices across various sectors.

Building an AI-native Cloud

In the “Accelerate Intelligence, Amplify Success” forum, which formed part of the summit, Huawei Cloud shared updates on its business progress in Southern Africa and success stories of empowering customers. 

“We believe AI will help South Africa obtain new capabilities, capture new opportunities, and improve national competitiveness,” said Rex Lei, president of Huawei Cloud Sub-Saharan Africa. “More and more industry customers in South Africa are choosing Huawei Cloud for digitalisation and intelligence. We hope to be an integral part of this journey and contribute more to South Africa’s industrial intelligence. “

Rex Lei, President of Huawei Cloud Sub-Saharan Africa

Partnering with South Africa on its digital journey

Steven Chen, managing director of Huawei Cloud South Africa, underscored the company’s commitment to South Africa’s digital transformation through collaboration, highlighting Huawei Cloud’s position as the first hyperscale data centre in the region with zero downtime. He also announcements the launch of the Pangu Models 5.5 and the powerful CloudMatrix 384.

Steven Chen, Managing Director of Huawei Cloud South Africa

Pangu models accelerate reshaping industries

Huawei Cloud’s Pangu Models focus on industry-facing applications. Pangu Models help customers tackle the most challenging issues in their specific scenarios and reimagine both operations and efficiency across numerous industries. 

Li Yin, CTO of Huawei Cloud Pangu Models, shared the innovations of Pangu Models 5.5, which have been fully upgraded to deliver new value for industries.

“Huawei Cloud’s Pangu Models have been deployed in over 500 scenarios across more than 30 industries worldwide, driving intelligent upgrades in government, finance, healthcare, meteorology, and more,” she said. “At present, enterprises are actively embracing AI. We are committed to applying these cutting-edge AI technologies in South Africa’s industries to help accelerate intelligent transformation and unlock new capabilities. “

Li Yin, Chief Technology Officer of Huawei Cloud Pangu Model

The message of the forum was that Huawei Cloud would continue to drive innovation, deepen industry expertise, and develop more customer-centric services to help more South African customers “leap to intelligence”.