Chinese tech giant Huawei said its profits more than doubled in 2023. File.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Chinese tech giant Huawei said on March 29 its profits more than doubled in 2023, as it ramps up efforts to bounce back in a year that saw the company apparently defy U.S. sanctions with the release of a high-end smartphone.

The Shenzhen-based company has been at the centre of an intense standoff between China and the United States – Washington has warned that its equipment could be used for espionage by the Chinese government, an allegation Huawei denies.

Sanctions since 2019 have cut the firm’s access to U.S.-made components and technologies, forcing it to diversify its growth strategy.

Huawei said it generated a profit of 87 billion yuan ($12 billion) last year, more than double 2022’s 35.6 billion yuan but short of its record 113.7 billion yuan profit in 2021.

Revenues also surged by 9.6% to 704.2 billion yuan.

“We’ve been through a lot over the past few years,” Rotating Chairman Ken Hu said Friday.

“But through one challenge after another, we’ve managed to grow.”

Highlighting Huawei’s efforts to diversify as it finds itself cut off by Western sanctions, the firm said revenues from its smart car business had more than doubled, bringing in 4.7 billion last year.

More than half its revenue came from its ICT infrastructure business, followed by consumer products and cloud computing.

“A new journey awaits us in 2024,” Mr. Hu said.

Huawei’s surge in profits follows a year in which the firm raised eyebrows in Washington with the release of its Mate 60 Pro smartphone.

Powered by an advanced domestically produced chip, it sparked debate about whether US attempts to curb China’s access to semiconductor technologies had been effective.

US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Bloomberg in December the development was “deeply concerning”.

The Mate 60 Pro has shown the ability to bite into key competitor Apple’s profits in China, analysts cited by Bloomberg have said.

In the crosshairs

Huawei remains the world’s leading equipment manufacturer for 5G, the fifth generation of mobile internet, and has been involved in infrastructure projects in many countries.

The United States has sought to convince its allies to ban Huawei from their 5G networks, arguing that Beijing could use the group’s products to monitor communications and data traffic.

The European Commission ruled in June last year that Chinese telecom equipment suppliers – including Huawei – posed a security risk to the EU.

Huawei’s French offices were raided last month on suspicion of “improper behaviour”, though no other details were immediately available.

In response to the U.S. curbs, Beijing has repeatedly slammed what it characterises as Washington’s “abuse of the concept of national security to hobble Chinese companies” and “discriminatory and unfair practices”.

The US government has said Huawei poses “unacceptable” national security risks. (File)
| Photo Credit: Reuters

The U.S. has no evidence that Chinese manufacturer Huawei can produce smartphones with advanced chips in large volume, U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said on Tuesday. Huawei recently started selling its Mate 60 Pro phone containing a chip that analysts believe was made with a technology breakthrough by Chinese chip foundry Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC).

“We don’t have any evidence that they can manufacture seven-nanometer (chips) at scale,” Raimondo said at a U.S. House hearing, referencing an advanced chip. From 2019, the U.S. cut Huawei’s access to certain chipmaking tools, calling Huawei a security risk, which the company denies.

The U.S. government has said Huawei poses “unacceptable” national security risks because of the threat of spying on U.S. telecommunications networks. The Commerce Department said this month it is working to obtain more information “on the character and composition” of the chip that may violate trade restrictions since they said it must have been made with U.S. technology.

Raimondo told the House Science Committee hearing she was upset by the advanced Huawei smartphone report. Some Republicans think the Commerce Department should end all technology exports to Huawei and SMIC.

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The chairs of the House Foreign Affairs, Energy and Commerce, Armed Services, and select China committees last week urged the Commerce Department to stop granting licenses to Huawei and SMIC, and said it called for additional U.S. pressure “and more effective export controls on our adversaries.”

Raimondo declined to comment after the hearing on whether she was considering ending all licenses for Huawei. Republican Representative Darrell Issa said at the hearing Raimondo was in China when the new Huawei phone was announced.

“You were bushwhacked to say the least by the launch of a 5G phone,” Issa said. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said this month the U.S. government is trying to get more information about the Huawei chip. Raimondo also told reporters the apparent bans on some Chinese government official use of Apple’s iPhones by the Chinese government was “concerning.”

The phone is powered by a new Kirin 9000s chip that was made in China by SMIC. (File)
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

China’s Huawei Technologies on Friday started presales for its Mate 60 Pro+ smartphone, adding a new version to a series that has captured global attention for revealing the Chinese tech firm’s success in beating back against U.S. sanctions.

With no prior advertising, as it did for the launch of the Mate 60 Pro smartphone last week, the company announced on its official online store that it would start taking orders for the phone from 10:08 a.m. (0208 GMT) with delivery by Oct. 9.

Specifications the company provided for the phone touted its capability to link-up to two satellites concurrently and larger internal storage versus the Mate 60 Pro. It did not release its price.

Speed tests shared by buyers on Chinese social media have suggested that the Mate 60 Pro is capable of download speeds exceeding those of top-line 5G phones.

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.The discovery is seen as a breakthrough for Huawei, whose access to chipmaking tools essential for producing the most advanced handset models has been restricted since 2019 by the U.S. This previously left the company only able to launch limited batches of 5G models using stockpiled chips.

The company on Friday also launched the Huawei Mate X5, a new version of its foldable phone series.