Huawei’s profit more than doubles in 2023, sales up 9.6% as cloud and digital businesses grow

Chinese telecoms gear company Huawei Technologies has reported its profit more than doubled last year as its cloud and digital businesses thrived in spite of US sanctions. The Shenzhen-based company reported a net profit of 87 billion yuan (USD 12 billion), helped by strong sales and an improved product portfolio. Revenue jumped nearly 10 per cent from a year earlier, to 704.2 billion yuan (USD 97.4 billion).

Huawei’s rotating chairman Ken Hu said the company’s figures were in line with forecasts.

“We’ve been through a lot over the past few years. But through one challenge after another, we’ve managed to grow,” Hu said.

Huawei also said it profited from “gains from the sales of some businesses”. It did not specify which businesses were sold.

Huawei, one of China’s first global tech brands, has been caught up in China-US tensions over technology and security.

The US has banned US companies from doing business with Huawei, cutting off its access to computer chips and software such as Google services for its smartphones and preventing it from selling its telecommunications gear to US customers. Washington says Huawei poses a threat to US national security. Huawei denies that. Huawei has refocused its business on cloud computing services and helping industries to shift to more digital operations.

Revenues from its cloud computing business grew almost 22 per cent year-on-year in 2023 to 55.3 billion yuan (USD 7.7 billion). Sales for its digital power business grew 3.5 per cent. Its automotive services related sales more than doubled. GSP