The Chinese artificial intelligence company iFlyTek plans to expand its European business amid growing trade tensions between the United States and China, said the company’s vice president Vincent Zhang.
“The trade war between the U.S. and China has had some impact on us,” Zhang said in an interview on the sidelines of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, adding that North America is the company’s largest market outside China in terms of demand.
Zhang noted that iFlyTek is seeking to diversify its supply chain to reduce any impact from tariffs while also working on expanding its business.
U.S. President Donald Trump this week announced the imposition of 20% tariffs on several categories of Chinese electronics that were not previously affected by tariffs, including smartphones, laptops, gaming consoles, smartwatches, speakers, and Bluetooth devices.
Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, imposed new tariffs last year on Chinese computer chips.
iFlyTek, with a market capitalization of 123 billion Chinese yuan ($16.97 billion USD), according to LSEG, currently operates in France and Hungary, where it already has an office. Zhang said the company also plans to open an office in Paris this year or next year.
“For next year, we have a plan to expand into more European countries, such as Spain and Italy,” he added, without providing further details.
The iFlyTek company, based in Hefei, is best known for its speech recognition technology. The company officially showcased a new tablet in Barcelona that transcribes conversations.
“This shows that iFlyTek places great importance on the European market,” said a company representative.
Zhang noted that iFlyTek is considering additional European countries for expansion, selecting them based on where the company has partners.
In 2019, iFlyTek was placed on the U.S. trade blacklist, preventing the company from purchasing components from U.S. companies, such as Nvidia artificial intelligence chips, without U.S. government approval. The company used chips manufactured by Huawei to develop its own artificial intelligence models and also integrated models from the DeepSeek startup.
“It’s a challenge for us, but over the past two years, many Chinese companies have started producing artificial intelligence chips,” Zhang said.