Huawei has reported annual revenue of over 860 billion yuan ($118.27 billion) in 2024, marking a 22% year-over-year increase and signaling a strong recovery despite ongoing U.S. sanctions. This figure brings the company close to its all-time revenue high of 891.4 billion yuan ($122.5 billion) in 2020, before U.S. trade restrictions significantly impacted its business.

Huawei Chairman Liang Hua announced the results at Guangdong's High-Quality Development Conference on February 5, highlighting the company's resilient growth across key business sectors. The company's ICT infrastructure segment remained stable, while consumer electronics rebounded, and its smart car solutions business experienced rapid expansion.

Smartphone Comeback and AI Expansion

Huawei's comeback in the smartphone market played a pivotal role in its financial resurgence. The company's latest devices, powered by domestically produced chipsets, gained traction in China, helping it capture a 16% market share and surpass Apple in domestic sales.

Beyond mobile, Huawei is aggressively expanding its presence in artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing. The company recently announced that its Ascend AI GPUs will support DeepSeek's R1 large language model (LLM), a move aimed at reducing reliance on Western technologies. Originally trained on Nvidia H800 GPUs, the R1 model can now run inference tasks on Huawei's Ascend 910C chips, which deliver approximately 60% of the performance of Nvidia's H100 GPU during inference.

Huawei is also working with AI infrastructure startup SiliconFlow to integrate DeepSeek's models into its Ascend cloud service, aligning with China's broader push for self-reliance in AI. Leading cloud providers Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent have also adopted DeepSeek's models, further solidifying China's shift toward homegrown AI solutions.

Record R&D Investment and Future Outlook

Huawei continued its strong commitment to innovation, investing 164.7 billion yuan ($22.7 billion) in R&D in 2023, accounting for 23.4% of its annual revenue. Over the past decade, its total R&D spending has surpassed 1.1 trillion yuan ($151.7 billion), reinforcing its technological leadership in semiconductors, telecommunications, and AI.

Looking ahead, Liang Hua emphasized Huawei's focus on digitalization, intelligence, and low-carbon solutions, stating:

"While external uncertainties remain, the trends of digital transformation, AI-driven innovation, and sustainability are clear. Huawei will continue to invest strategically to deliver the best products and services to global customers."

With its 2024 revenue nearing pre-sanction levels, Huawei is positioning itself as a key player in the future of AI, telecommunications, and smart technology, despite geopolitical challenges.