Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd. 2018 Annual Report

Who is Huawei?

Founded in 1987, Huawei is a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) solutions provider. We are committed to bringing digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world. We have nearly 188,000 employees, and we operate in more than 170 countries and regions, serving more than three billion people around the world.

Who owns Huawei?

Huawei is a private company wholly owned by its employees. Through the Union of Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd., we implement an Employee Shareholding Scheme that involves 96,768 employee shareholders. This scheme is limited to employees. No government agency or outside organization holds shares in Huawei.

Who controls and manages Huawei?

Huawei has a sound and effective corporate governance system. Shareholding employees elect 115 representatives to form the Representatives’ Commission. This Representatives’ Commission elects the Chairman of the Board and the remaining 16 board directors. The Board of Directors elects four deputy chairs and three executive directors. Three deputy chairs take turns serving as the company’s rotating chairman.

The rotating chairman leads the Board of Directors and its Executive Committee while in office. The board exercises decision-making authority for corporate strategy and operations management, and is the highest body responsible for corporate strategy, operations management, and customer satisfaction.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Board chairs the Representatives’ Commission. As Huawei’s highest decision-making body, the Representatives’ Commission makes decisions on important company matters, like profit distribution, capital increases, and the elections of members of the Board of Directors and the Supervisory Board.

Who does Huawei work with?

Externally, we rely on our customers. They are at the center of everything we do, and we create value for them with innovative products. Internally, we rely on our dedicated employees. Dedication is a core part of our work ethic. At Huawei, those who contribute more get more.

We work with stakeholders including suppliers, partners, industry organizations, open source communities, standards organizations, universities, and research institutes all over the world to cultivate a broader ecosystem that thrives on shared success. In this way we can help drive advancements in technology and grow the industry as a whole.

We create local employment opportunities, pay our taxes, and comply with all applicable laws and regulations in the countries where we operate. We help local industries go digital, and we openly engage with governments and the media.

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Guo Ping, Rotating Chairman

"The easiest way to bring down a fortress is to attack it from within and the easiest way to reinforce it is from outside. Moving forward, we will do everything we can to shake off outside distractions, improve management, and make progress towards our strategic goals."

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Liang Hua, Chairman of the Board

"The world is changing and we are facing new challenges. But Huawei will stay the course. We will work with our customers and partners to build an ecosystem that thrives on shared success. And we will do our best to push the limits of technology and promote social progress along the way."

2018: Healthy Operating Results, Strong Financial Position

Revenue
721,202
CNY Million
19.5%
Net profit
59,345
CNY Million
25.1%
Cash flow from operating activities
74,659
CNY Million
Healthy cash flow
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Unit: CNY Million

Business Highlights in 2018

Driving Ubiquitous Connectivity

  • We launched the industry's first full range of 5G end-to-end commercial products and solutions that comply with 3GPP standards. In addition, we conducted 5G tests with 182 carriers worldwide, signed more than 30 commercial contracts for 5G, and shipped more than 40,000 5G base stations to markets around the world.
  • In the Internet of Things (IoT) domain, we rolled out 53 NB-IoT networks and 16 eMTC networks, supporting millions of connections.
  • We worked with 25 leading customers through our NetCity joint innovation program, and fully upgraded our Intent-Driven Network Solution. We maintained our place as a leader in the areas of intelligent data centers, intelligent campuses, premium home broadband, and high-quality private lines. In addition, our 5G transport solution was commercially deployed by more than 40 carriers.

Enabling Pervasive Intelligence

  • We announced our AI strategy as well as a full-stack, all-scenario AI portfolio, which included our Ascend series of AI chips – the world's first AI IP and chip series designed for a full range of scenarios – and products and cloud services that are built on Ascend chip capabilities. We also provide the SoftCOM AI solution to carriers and the HiAI solution to consumers, and serve our enterprise and government customers through the Huawei Cloud Enterprise Intelligence (EI) platform.
  • We launched the Atlas intelligent computing platform, powered by our Ascend series of AI chips. This platform integrates various types of products, such as modules, cards, boards, edge stations, and appliances, building an all-scenario AI infrastructure that covers devices, edges, and clouds.
  • We launched our new Advanced RISC Machine (ARM)-based CPU Kunpeng 920. We also released our TaiShan series servers, powered by Kunpeng 920. The TaiShan servers are built for big data, distributed storage, and ARM-native application scenarios.

Delivering a Personalized Experience

  • We achieved many breakthroughs in domains such as device performance, photography, AI, communications capabilities, and design. These breakthroughs have significantly enhanced the competitiveness and experiences of our consumer products, and helped us maintain our position among the world's top three smartphone makers.
  • A more robust ecosystem that delivers an intelligent experience across all scenarios: In the smart home domain, we worked closely with more than 150 brands through the HiLink smart home platform, involving more than 500 product models. In the connected vehicle domain, we provided stable and reliable connected vehicle services to tens of millions of drivers. In the health and fitness domain, we served more than 100 million users.
  • A more prosperous Huawei Mobile Services ecosystem: The number of registered developers exceeded 560,000 worldwide, and we worked with these developers to create a robust application service ecosystem.

Building a Digital Platform

  • We built an intelligent, converged, open, and secure digital platform featuring device-pipe-cloud synergy, which helps customers go digital faster. By the end of 2018, more than 700 cities and 211 Fortune Global 500 companies – 48 of which are Fortune 100 companies – selected Huawei as their partner for digital transformation.
  • We released industry-leading, full-stack cloud solutions, which provide strong support in all aspects – including chipsets, hardware, software, solutions, and the industry ecosystem – for the digital transformation of enterprises. We also focused on building full-stack platform capabilities, end-to-end service capabilities, and comprehensive ecosystem partnerships. In addition, we provided a wide array of hybrid cloud solutions that support homogeneous and heterogeneous architectures.

Innovation and Leadership

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Huawei invests more than 10% of its sales revenue in R&D every year.

10%+
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In 2018, 80,000+ employees were involved in R&D, accounting for 45% of the total workforce.

80,000+
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R&D investment in 2018 exceeded CNY100 billion, an increase of 13.2% year-on-year.

CNY100 billion
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R&D investment over the past decade: More than CNY485 billion

CNY485 billion
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Huawei is one of the world's largest patent holders; total number of patents granted to Huawei as of December 31, 2018: 87,805

87,805
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Security and Trustworthiness

Prioritizing cyber security and privacy protection: We believe that, as a technology provider, it's our responsibility to build security through innovation, enhance security through collaboration, and work together to shape a digital world that everyone can trust.

Over the past 30 years, we have built more than 1,500 networks together with telecom carriers, providing network services to over three billion people in more than 170 countries and regions. Throughout this time Huawei has maintained a solid track record in security.

Huawei is now the industry's best when it comes to product anti-attack and anti-penetration capabilities. At the end of 2018, our Board of Directors approved a formal resolution to invest an initial budget of US$2 billion for a companywide transformation aimed at enhancing our software engineering capabilities.

End-to-End Business Continuity Management System

After many years of development, Huawei has established an end-to-end business continuity management system that covers all aspects of our business, including procurement, manufacturing, logistics, and technical services. With the support of effective management teams, processes, and IT systems, we now have mature business continuity and emergency response plans, and conduct regular training and drills to ensure effective management of business risks. Over the past ten years, Huawei has responded to more than 80 emergencies in a fast and well-organized manner. These include the tsunami in Japan, the flood in Thailand, the earthquake in Nepal, and various ransomware attacks.

We adopt a supply diversification strategy and ensure supply continuity through multiple technical solutions, multiple suppliers, multiple production bases, and multiple transportation routes. For products already running on live networks, we have warehoused enough spare parts to provide full lifecycle support. We have invested heavily for more than a decade to ensure supply security in even the most extreme conditions.

Contributing to Society and Helping to Build a Fully Connected, Intelligent World

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Bridging the Digital Divide and Promoting Digital Inclusion

  • Huawei's Three-Star solutions connect 100 million people in rural areas
  • Huawei's Mobile Money solution serves more than 150 million users 
  • Huawei's ICT academy covers 557 colleges across more than 60 countries and regions 
  • More than 4,700 students from 108 countries and regions have studied at Huawei as part of the Seeds for the Future program, which has just celebrated its 10th anniversary
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Supporting Network Stability and Enhancing Cyber Security and User Privacy Protection

  • Guaranteed smooth communications for over one-third of the world's population
  • Provided 24/7 technical services for over 1,500 networks across more than 170 countries and regions 
  • Signed cyber security agreements with over 3,400 suppliers 
  • Obtained 11 international security certifications for major products
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Promoting Environmental Protection

  • Energy efficiency of major network products increased by between 15% and 26% 
  • Six of our mobile phones received the distinguished UL 110 for environmental friendliness 
  • 82.3% of returned products were reused 
  • Used about 932 million kWh of clean energy, representing an emissions reduction of about 450,000 tons
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Building a Healthy Ecosystem

  • Invested more than CNY13.5 billion in employee benefits 
  • Appointed and trained compliance officers for over 130 subsidiaries 
  • Over 140,000 people have passed Huawei’s Safety Passport certification 
  • Launched 177 community support programs around the world

Huawei Investment & Holding Co., Ltd. 2018 Annual Report

Download the 2018 Annual Report (PDF 12.9MB)