Huawei Technologies maintained revenue growth momentum in the first three quarters of 2023, on the back of strong sales of its Mate 60 series 5G smartphones as the company continues to defy the impact of US sanctions.
Net profit margin in the first nine months was 16 per cent as Huawei recorded partial gains from the sale of businesses and improved efficiency, a slight improvement from the 15 per cent in the first half, according to the company.
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Huawei said the performance was in line with forecasts. While the company is privately held, it voluntarily discloses key financial data on a regular basis.
Although Huawei did not provide breakdowns for its main segments, the company said its consumer business, which includes smartphones and electric cars under the Aito brand, reported revenue growth, and the company highlighted the rapid growth of its enterprise-facing cloud business which includes its artificial intelligence (AI) model Pangu.
"Moving forward, we will continue to increase our investment in R&D to make the most of our business portfolio and take the competitiveness of our products and services to new heights," Huawei's rotating chairman Ken Hu Houkun said in a statement.
The latest financial results come after Huawei made a strong comeback in the smartphone market with the surprise launch of Mate 60 series smartphones in late August, which featured the made-in-China 5G Kirin 9000s processor, that was achieved despite US tech sanctions.
The Mate 60 series marked the US-blacklisted company's return to the 5G smartphone market, which ignited patriotic fervour and strong local demand after years of struggling under Washington's tech and trade sanctions.
An advertisement for the Huawei Mate 60 series smartphone in Shanghai, Sept. 17, 2023. Photo: Bloomberg alt=An advertisement for the Huawei Mate 60 series smartphone in Shanghai, Sept. 17, 2023. Photo: Bloomberg>
Apart from its efforts in smartphones, Huawei has also stepped up expansion in the cloud computing field to diversify its revenue streams and weather the sanctions. In September the company launched a data centre in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, to provide public cloud services for clients in the country as well as other parts of the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia.