Huawei Technologies Co. reported an increase in profit for the fourth quarter of 2024.
Currently, the mentioned Chinese company is experiencing a kind of revival. The firm’s consumer business demonstrates strength and resilience in the domestic market amid falling sales of Apple Inc.’s iPhone in this commercial space. Also, the steady growth of Huawei’s cloud unit is currently being recorded, which is gradually beginning to surpass the results of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. in the corresponding direction.
The company, which is the Chinese leader in the area of networking and electronics, released data according to which its profit for the fourth quarter of 2023 amounted to about 13.9 billion yuan ($1.9 billion). This figure is more than 65% higher than the result for the same period in 2022. In the last three months of the mentioned year, Huawei’s profit amounted to 8.4 billion yuan.
It is worth noting that the tech giant’s results for the fourth quarter of 2023 are particularly noteworthy in the context of the fact that for many years this firm has been in a kind of epicenter of sanctions from the United States. In a sense, Huawei has become both a symbol and the embodiment of the confrontation between Beijing and Washington in the technology sector. The company has managed to make progress in the face of a strict export control regime that has limited its access to components, including chips.
Last August, a significant event took place, which became a kind of material confirmation of Huawei’s significant production forces and capabilities. The company presented the flagship line of Mate 60 smartphones with a 7-nanometer processor made in China. Against the background of this debut, a sharp large-scale increase in consumer interest in Huawei products was recorded in the Asian country market.
The consumer electronics company’s unit recorded a 17.3% year-on-year increase in sales in 2023.
Huawei found itself to some extent outside the global smartphone market and the chip manufacturing industry after the United States imposed restrictive measures in 2019 that paralyzed the company’s interaction with foreign suppliers. Some experts say that the firm’s successes are a signal of Beijing’s determination to resist sanctions from Washington.
Huawei is currently building several chip manufacturing plants. These actions are carried out in the context of creating a kind of production base for the realization of the company’s ambitions in industries such as artificial intelligence and electric vehicles.
Huawei’s cloud computing unit has grown by almost 22% over the past year. This structural element of the company’s functional system was able to achieve success in competition with Alibaba and Tencent Holdings Ltd. In March, Huawei launched an artificial intelligence-based weather forecasting model with the meteorological bureau of Shenzhen. The company’s chips are used in AI systems developed by Chinese specialists. These products, for example, are being applied at the Hong Kong Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics to train an AI assistant for neurosurgeons.
In terms of scale and functional versatility, Huawei is still inferior to Xiaomi Corp., which presented its first electric cars in March. At the same time, the company, which has become one of the main targets of Washington’s sanctions against Beijing, is making some progress in providing technologies for the automotive industry. Last year, the corresponding business grew by 128%. Huawei is currently showing off Aito brand cars in its stores in China.
It is worth noting that the improvement of the company’s position in the domestic market is to some extent related to regulatory measures. Last year, the media reported that China had implemented an unspoken ban on the use of iPhones in the workplace by employees of government agencies and companies backed by authorities of the Asian country. There is also information that the number of organizations abandoning Apple products is constantly increasing. Media reports that in February, iPhone shipments to China fell by about 33% year-on-year. Moreover, the Chinese government strongly encourages the use of homegrown developments. The debut of the Mate 60 was an occasion for enthusiasm for the prospects of the Asian country in the area of advanced technology.
Despite its unequivocal progress, Huawei is aware of the complexity of the circumstances of the external environment. In December, the company warned that the lack of stability in the technology sector and turbulence in the global economy would become challenges in 2024.
As we have reported earlier, Huawei Tests Brute-Force Method for Manufacturing Advanced Chips.
