Huawei Technologies said on Monday its profit fell by over a quarter in 2024 versus a year prior when income from the sale of its Honor handset unit provided an earnings boost, while its revenue grew at the fastest rate in five years.
Net profit tumbled 28% to C¥62.6-billion yuan (US$8.6-billion), which a company spokesman attributed to heavy investment into research and development — reaching C¥179.7-billion, or about 20% of revenue.
Huawei sold its budget smartphone unit Honor to a Shenzhen government consortium in 2020 after US sanctions limited its access to high-end chips and services from Google, with payments boosting profit in subsequent years.
The Shenzhen-based firm reported C¥862.1-billion in 2024 revenue, up 22.4% from 2023, with ICT infrastructure contributing most to the figure, growing 4.9% to C¥369.9-billion, Huawei said in a statement.
Its gross profit margin in 2024 was 44.4%, down from 46.2% in 2023.
Last year was the third successive year of growth since revenue tanked nearly a third in 2021 amid intensified US curbs on access to advanced chips due to security concerns. It also came close to its 2020 peak of C¥891.3-billion.
Revenue from Huawei’s consumer segment, which includes smartphones and other digital gadgets, rose 38% to C¥339-billion, the second-highest growth across its five major segments.
Huawei’s intelligent automotive solutions unit, which helps traditional car makers make smart cars, saw revenue jump by more than 4.5x to C¥26.4-billion. It also eked out a profit for the first time last year.
In the fast lane
In a press release, Huawei’s rotating chairwoman and chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, said the results were in line with forecasts.
“In 2024, the entire team at Huawei banded together to tackle a wide range of external challenges,” Meng said, adding that Huawei devices are back in the fast lane.
Read: Huawei waves Android goodbye
Huawei said it will continue to open up its platform capabilities to ecosystem partners and provide developers with tools and products in domains including its HarmonyOS, Kunpeng, Ascend and cloud computing products.
Huawei has emerged as a centre for Chinese technological innovation in chips and operating systems amid a Sino-US tech war, with its executives previously saying that US action had pushed the company into “survival mode”.
The company has in past months struck a more confident tone, with Zhengfei telling Chinese President Xi Jinping last May that concerns China had about a lack of homegrown chips and operating systems had eased. — Che Pan in Beijing and David Kirton, (c) 2025 Reuters
Get breaking news from TechCentral on WhatsApp. Sign up here.