IBM’s Rometty Adamant On Chinese Technology Sharing

IBM is preparing to open some of its technology to Chinese companies in a bid to help the country build up its IT industry.

The move is likely to help IBM find more success in a market which is undergoing constant moves in technology regulations.

Reuters news agency reported that IBM CEO Virginia Rometty told an audience at this week’s China Development Forum: “If you’re a country, as China is, of 1.3 billion people you would want an IT industry as well.

“I think some firms find that perhaps frightening. We, though, at IBM…find that to be a great opportunity.”

Snowden

The comments highlight a new strategy by foreign companies to help penetrate the Chinese technology market. Ever since the Snowden revelations, ties between China and US companies have weakened, with the Beijing encouraging national companies to provide technology equipment such as servers, routers, and telecoms hardware.

In January, Suzhou PowerCore Technology Company and the Research Institute of Jiangsu Industrial Technology announced the two Chinese organisations will join the OpenPOWER Foundation, with Suzhou PowerCore intending to use IBM’s POWER architecture to provide chip design solutions to push server innovation in such areas as Big Data, cloud computing and next generation data centres.

A spokesperson for Suzhou said: “This new model of global collaboration among foundation participants promises to bring much more choice and value to information technology users throughout China.” Previous to this, August 2014 saw IBM partner up with a once server rival Inspur to help develop server technology for companies in China.

But Rometty’s remarks are the clearest statement yet of IBM’s eastern intent. During the fourth quarter of 2014, IBM reported a one percent dip in Chinese revenues compared to the previous year.

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