Huawei has announced that it has entered into artificial intelligence (AI) alliance with Internet search provider giant Baidu.

The goal of the partnership is to foster a new mobile and AI ecosystem by leveraging Huawei’s hiAI platform and Baidu Brain, a compendium of the company’s AI assets and services, and combine hardware and software to provide global consumers with new smart service experiences.

According to Robin Li Yanhong, Baidu’s chairman and chief executive, the strategic cooperation with Huawei will kick off the AI-powered intelligent devices era,

Huawei is also hoping that the alliance will give it an important edge in competing against the likes of Apple, which is looking to bring on-board more AI capabilities over the next few years.

Chinese companies have been forming strategic alliances in recent times as competition intensifies in China, with Tencent and JD.com forming one recently, while Baidu and JD.com have also formed an AI alliance.