Huawei outpaces Apple, Samsung in R&D increase

A visitor tests a Huawei VR device at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Feb 28, 2019. [Photo/Xinhua]

Chinese tech giant Huawei reported a 149 percent rise in research and development spending from 2014 to 2018, faster than its counterparts Apple and Samsung, according to a Bloomberg report released last Friday.

The company's R&D expenditure increase was just behind Amazon, which rose 210 percent during the 5-year period.

In 2018, Huawei spent $15.3 billion on technology R&D, ranking in fourth place following Samsung, Google's parent Alphabet and Amazon. Data also showed the company took 14 percent of its annual sales on research last year, the second-highest after Alphabet.

Huawei's R&D spending totaled 480 billion yuan ($71.3 billion) over the past 10 years, according to its annual report. Besides, the tech behemoth achieved 721.2 billion yuan in global sales in 2018, a 19.5 percent increase year-on-year, and net profit reached 59.3 billion yuan, up 25.1 percent compared with a year earlier.

Smartphone sales from the company gained 348.9 billion yuan last year, a 45.1 percent rise year-on-year accounting for 48.4 percent of total revenue.

As of April 15, Huawei has secured 40 commercial contracts for 5G equipment and shipped over 70,000 5G base stations, the company announced at its annual Global Analyst Summit.

The telecoms leader will also invest $300 million annually to support academic research on basic science, technology and technological innovation, said Xu Wenwei, Huawei's director of the board and president of the company's newly established Institute of Strategic Research.

Huawei posted first quarter revenue of 179.7 billion yuan last Monday, a year-on-year growth of 39 percent.