Chinese tech giant Huawei has been increasing its R&D investment amid the impact of US sanctions and severe restrictions on purchases such as semiconductors.
Huawei's R&D spending reached RMB 141.8 billion ($21.89 billion) in fiscal 2020, about 9 times that of fiscal 2010, Nikkei reported Monday.
Huawei's smartphone business fell out of the global top 5 due to sanctions. But Huawei will increase its strength in research and development and cultivate new areas such as artificial intelligence and automotive-related areas in an attempt to achieve a major transformation of its business model, the report said.
Huawei's internal charter stipulates spending more than 10 percent of its operating revenue on R&D. But that percentage was raised to 15.9 percent in fiscal 2020 (as of December 2020), substantially higher than rivals Samsung Electronics' 8.9 percent and Apple's 6.8 percent (as of September 2020).
The ratio exceeded 20 percent from January to June 2021, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
It's worth noting that Huawei's rotating chairman Guo Ping previously said he believed the consumer business would survive and Huawei would not give up its cell phone business, while adhering to the principle of not building cars and helping car manufacturers build good cars.
In the first half of 2021, Huawei achieved sales revenue of RMB 320.4 billion and a net profit margin of 9.8 percent, according to the company's recently released operating results report for the first half of 2021.
Among them, the company's carrier business revenue was RMB 136.9 billion, enterprise business revenue was RMB 42.9 billion and consumer business revenue was RMB 135.7 billion.
