Huawei's R&D Campaign in Two Charts

[Opinion] It's spending big, with a little (a lot) of help from a friend

Good Morning from Taipei,

Huawei is a phenomenal technology company. Politics and IP theft aside, the Chinese electronics maker has built a leading position among global electronics players. Recent pressure from home and abroad have forced management to push harder into R&D, and that shows in its financial figures.

Rising R&D expenses — topping 25% of revenue in 2022 and remaining high last year — tend to eat into operating profit. But thankfully the government has been quick to help. Annual grants to aid both R&D and the purchase of equipment climbed almost seven-fold over the past decade, becoming a growing contributor to Huawei’s bottom line.

That’s not to say Huawei would be losing money if not for the government, au contraire, nor is it the only company across the globe enjoying handouts (hello, chipmakers). But the scale of the increase caught my eye, so I thought I’d share.