Huawei posts 28% rise in 2017 net profit at $7 bn, to hike R&D investments

The company's total R&D spend over the past decade has exceeded $60.4 billion

Eyeing the growth-driven Cloud, Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G markets, Shenzhen-based Huawei on Friday reported net profit of 47.5 billion yuan ($7.3 billion) for 2017, an increase of 28.1 per cent year-on-year, and registered revenue of 603.6 billion yuan ($92.5 billion) -- a rise of 15.7 per cent over 2016.

In 2017, Huawei's annual investment in research and development reached 89.7 billion yuan ($13.8 billion), up 17.4 per cent compared with 2016.

The company's total R&D spend over the past decade has exceeded 394 billion yuan ($60.4 billion).

"We're on a new journey. Over the next 10 years, Huawei will continue to increase investment in technological innovation, investing more than $10 billion back into R&D every year," Ken Hu, Huawei's Rotating Chairman, said in a statement.

 

"We will actively pursue open collaboration, attract and cultivate top talent, and step up efforts in exploratory research. We want to better enable all industries to go digital and intelligent," Hu added.

Focusing on helping global carriers maximise the potential of their existing network assets and seize new opportunities in video, Internet of Things (IoT) and Cloud markets, Huawei's Carrier business group generated 297.8 billion yuan ($45.7 billion) in revenue, an increase of 2.5 per cent year-on-year.

Huawei's enterprise business group enhanced innovations in cloud, big data, campus networks, data centres, IoT and other domains.

In 2017, the enterprise business generated 54.9 billion yuan ($8.4 billion) in revenue, an increase of 35.1 per cent compared with 2016.

Huawei set up a Cloud Business Unit in 2017, which launched 99 cloud services across 14 major categories, and over 50 solutions.

The company also unveiled the Enterprise Intelligence (EI) platform and developed over 2,000 cloud service partners.

"As we look to 2018, emerging technologies like IoT, cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and 5G will soon see large-scale application," Hu added.