HUAWEI was ranked 5th in the industrial research and investment ranking
development in fiscal year 2017/18, published by the European Commission’s Science and Knowledge Service.1 The list included 2,500 companies from around the world that invested more than 25 million euros in R&D during the year. These included 438 companies from China, 778 from the U.S., and 557 from the European Union.
HUAWEI spent 11.3 billion euros on R&D in 2018. Compared to the previous year, the company increased its investment in R&D by 16.6%, rising to 5th place in the ranking.
For 14 years, from 2004 to 2018, HUAWEI has moved up more than 200 steps in this ranking, ahead of many market leaders in terms of both dynamics and the amount of investment. The total R&D investments of all companies on the list amounted to 736.4 billion euros.
According to statistics, in fiscal year 2017/18, China’s largest companies spent 71.2 billion euros on research, and HUAWEI accounted for a seventh of that amount. The average increase in investment among Chinese companies was 20%, while globally, industrial companies’ investment in research and development grew by 8.3%.3
Compared to other Chinese companies, HUAWEI has spent considerably more on research in artificial intelligence and the development of 5G communication technologies.
As a result, the company has so far received 26 official orders for the deployment of 5G networks in different regions of the world and shipped more than 10,000 base stations of the 5G standard. The company’s annual revenue exceeded 108.5 billion USD.
For many years, HUAWEI has invested more than 10% of its annual revenue in research. The total investment in R&D from 2008 to 2017 reached $58 billion. HUAWEI’s research and development structure includes 14 institutes and research centers in 18 countries.
The Russian center specializes in mathematics, and the Italian center, located in Milan, focuses on microwave technology. In addition to research centers, the company has created 36 collaborative innovation centers and 16 OpenLabs, where HUAWEI engineers and researchers work side by side with customers and partners. The company is a member of 360 standards bodies, industry alliances and open source communities, actively participating in the development of all important industry standards.