Huawei rolls out HarmonyOS 6 beta With AI agents as US sanctions drive self-reliance push

Huawei rolls out HarmonyOS 6 beta With AI agents as US sanctions drive self-reliance push

Huawei Technologies has released the beta version of HarmonyOS 6 to developers, marking another step in the Chinese tech giant's efforts to build a viable alternative to Western-dominated mobile operating systems amid ongoing US trade restrictions.

The announcement came at Huawei's annual developer conference in Dongguan, China, where the company showcased new AI-powered features while acknowledging the uphill battle its proprietary OS faces against established players.

The latest version introduces AI agents through the HarmonyOS Agent Framework, allowing developers to create automated programs that can perform tasks for users without requiring them to build or train foundation models from scratch.

Richard Yu Chengdong, chairman of Huawei's consumer business group, said more than 50 AI agents from partners including Chinese microblogging platform Weibo and audio platform Ximalaya will be available when HarmonyOS 6 launches publicly.

However, Yu did not provide a specific consumer launch date for the new OS version.

Ecosystem growth amid market reality

Huawei's HarmonyOS ecosystem has shown steady growth, with the current version 5 running on more than 40 device models. The platform now boasts over eight million registered developers and supports more than 30,000 apps and "atomic services" – lightweight programs that run without installation.

Despite these numbers, Yu candidly acknowledged HarmonyOS still trails Apple's iOS and Google's Android in global reach and app support. "But the top 5,000 apps accounted for 99.9% of consumer time spent" on Huawei devices, he said, suggesting the company is focusing on the most essential applications rather than total app count.

Hardware push continues

The OS transition reflects Huawei's broader strategy since being placed on the US Entity List in 2019. According to consultancy firm Canalys, Huawei has shipped more than 103 million smartphones and 21 million tablets running HarmonyOS, with nearly half delivered in 2024 alone.

The company has also expanded beyond mobile devices, launching two HarmonyOS-powered laptops last month as it seeks to create a unified software experience across multiple device categories.

AI infrastructure investment

Alongside the OS announcement, Huawei unveiled its Pangu 5.5 AI models, including a natural language processing model with 718 billion parameters and a computer vision model with 15 billion parameters.

The company is targeting industrial applications with specialized models for medicine, finance, governance, manufacturing, and automotive sectors.

The tech giant also detailed progress on its CloudMatrix 384 AI infrastructure, featuring 384 Ascend neural processing units and 192 Kunpeng CPUs. In a recent paper, Huawei claimed its Ascend chips outperformed Nvidia's H800 graphics processing units when running DeepSeek's R1 reasoning model, though independent verification of these benchmarks remains limited.

Market implications

The HarmonyOS 6 rollout underscores Huawei's commitment to reducing dependence on Western technology platforms, a strategy that has become increasingly critical as US sanctions continue to limit the company's access to American software and hardware components.

While the platform's growth is notable, its success will ultimately depend on whether Huawei can convince developers and consumers that HarmonyOS offers compelling advantages over established alternatives in an increasingly competitive market.