Huawei to place R&D first

Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies pledged to put research and development as a top priority to weather uncertainties and maintain its business continuity, as its R&D expense reached the highest in a decade last year.

“Both our R&D expense quantity and R&D expense ratio reached a 10–year high last year,” Karl Song, vice president of corporate communications at Huawei, told reporters in Seoul Tuesday.

“The harder things get, the more we are investing in the future.”

Of Huawei‘s total revenue of $99.9 billion in 2021, 22.4 percent went to R&D, its annual report showed Monday. Huawei has made it a rule to spend at least 10 percent of its annual revenue on R&D every year, according to Song,

Also, Huawei ranked No. 2 at the 2021 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard, up three notches from the previous year.

The trend is expected to continue this year, as the investment will be used to rethink fundamental theories, reshape architecture and reinvent software, Song added.

Huawei generated a net profit of $17.8 billion, its annual report showed. Huawei has worked with Korean partners including mobile carrier LG Uplus to help them provide 5G services and achieve carbon reduction goals.