All Eyes To China As Dell Announces £80bn Five-Year-Plan

Dell will be investing $125 billion (£81bn) into China over the next five years as the company looks to increase its presence in the market.

Calling the plan its “In China, for China” 4.0 strategy, Dell chief executive Michael Dell said: “China and the United States are among the countries where the information industry is developing the fastest, resulting in the most vibrant enterprises.”

Dell will contribute $175 billion (£114bn) to imports and exports, sustaining one million jobs through the ecosystem and demonstrating its long-term commitment to the Chinese market.

Dell Ventures

Dell Ventures, the company’s corporate venture program, is also entering the Chinese market, promoting the strategy of “massive entrepreneurship and innovation by all”, the company said.

The firm is also going enter the artificial intelligence race in China, working with the Chinese Academy of Sciences in establishing the “Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Computing Joint-Lab.”

The AI research will look into applications for computing architectures based on brain information processing and cognitive functions, with Dell looking to better simulate how brains works and use the results for deep learning.

Potential

“The Internet is the new engine for China’s future economic growth and has unlimited potential,” said Michael Dell.

“Being an innovative and efficient technology company, Dell will embrace the principle of ‘In China, for China’ and closely integrate Dell China strategies with national policies in order to support Chinese technological innovation, economic development and industrial transformation.”

The company said it already employs almost 2,000 senior engineers in the country, but wants to expand and improve that R&D workforce for end-to-end solutions specifically tailored for the Chinese market. The Dell Greater China R&D Center will support Dell’s IT development from desktop to data center, and from hardware to software and cloud computing.

Dell entered the Chinese market in 1995, tapping into a large PC-buying population and going head to head with HP.

In just a few years Dell had built up a considerable name in the market, especially against more local names such as Toshiba, Acer, and Legend.

But by 2005, Dell’s success was waning, and in 2013 when Dell went private, Chinese sales account for almost $5bn annually.

The investment follows the trend of other manufacturers setting up close partnerships with Chinese counterparts, hoping to tap into more successful sales by getting agreat understanding of the market.Intel announced in 2014 investment into Chinese chips firms, with HP revealing earlier this year it will sell off its Chinese server and storage division to Tsinghua Holdings.

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