Eric Xu (Chinese: 徐直军; pinyin: Xú Zhíjūn; born 1967) is a Chinese business executive and engineer who has held senior leadership roles at Huawei Technologies since the early 1990s. He has been a deputy chairman of the company's board since 2018 and has served several times as its rotating chairman, the top executive position in Huawei's rotating leadership system.
Early life and education
Xu was born in 1967 in Yiyang, Hunan. He received a doctoral degree from Nanjing University of Science and Technology. Biographical notes published by the company list him as holding a doctorate from that university.
Career at Huawei
Xu joined Huawei in 1993. His official biography lists a series of posts: president of the wireless product line, chief strategy and marketing officer, chief products and solutions officer, chair of the Investment Review Board, rotating CEO, and chair of the Strategy and Development Committee. In a post published on Huawei's official X account in 2026, he recalled that in 2002 he was made responsible for a major transformation program called Integrated Product Development (IPD), and that in 2005 he was appointed chair of the Investment Review Board, which oversees the company's product investments. He wrote that he became rotating CEO in 2011.
Wikipedia records that Xu was elected deputy chairman of Huawei on 23 March 2018 and became a member of the board of directors at that time.
Rotating chairmanship
Huawei is governed under a rotating chairman system. Under this arrangement, the chairman on duty presides over the board and its standing committee for a fixed period, and the company describes that person as its top leader during the term. Xu held the post for the periods from April to September 2024 and from April to September 2025. Meng Wanzhou served in the role from October 2024 to March 2025, and Wang Tao held it from April to September 2026.
On 30 September 2026, Huawei announced that Xu would be the rotating and acting chairman from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027. During this term he heads the board and its executive committee.
Public statements on AI computing
Xu has spoken publicly about Huawei's artificial intelligence hardware, particularly its Ascend line of AI processors. At Huawei Connect 2026 in September, he discussed the company's AI computing strategy with journalists, alongside Liao Heng, the company's chief scientist for semiconductors. In an interview reported in October 2026, Xu said that Ascend chips had surpassed Nvidia in market share within China, while stating that domestic demand could not yet be fully met. Reports also said that Huawei did not plan to expand broadly overseas at that stage. These are company claims as reported in the press. Analysts quoted in coverage of the same event noted that Ascend chips still trail Nvidia's top products in single-chip performance, and that the company's advantage rests largely on system-level scale.
Xu has also said that Huawei expects supply, rather than demand, to be the main constraint on its AI hardware, and that China should continue to develop AI rather than slow down. He has argued that leading U.S. AI companies have greater computing resources, which he suggested may explain their stronger concern about AI risks.
See also
Huawei's leadership structure has been organized around its rotating chairman system, under which several senior executives have held the top role in turn. The company operates in artificial intelligence, telecommunications and semiconductor design, and Xu's public statements mainly concern these areas.
References
- Notice on Rotating Chairman Tenure - Huaweihuawei.com
- Notice on Rotating Chairman Tenure.webwire.com
- Xu Zhijunen.wikipedia.org
- Eric Xu - Rotating CEO @ Huawei - Crunchbase Person Profilecrunchbase.com
- Huawei on X: "https://t.co/nF8rXzX8Z8" / Xx.com
- Huawei says Ascend tops Nvidia in China as demand gap remainsdigitimes.com
- Huawei Rotating Chairman: Ascend Has Surpassed Nvidia in China Market Sharegeopolitechs.org
- Huawei’s AI chips have overtaken Nvidia’s sales in China, a meaningful step toward building a homegrown alternative - Gizmochinagizmochina.com
- Huawei’s Eric Xu: China May Come to Share U.S. AI Risk Concerns as Its Technology Advancespekingnology.com
- 徐直军，10月1日起当值华为轮值董事长 - 21财经m.21jingji.com
- 徐直军当值华为轮值董事长，为期半年jwview.com
- 华为：4 月 1 日～9 月 30 日期间，由徐直军当值轮值董事长_腾讯新闻news.qq.com
- 徐直军先生 - 华为管理层信息huawei.com
- 华为：徐直军10月1日起当值轮值董事长_公司_官网_汪涛sohu.com