Founded in 1987 with headquarters in Shenzhen, China, Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. Huawei’s products and solutions are used by 45 of the world’s top 50 carriers in over 170 countries, serving around a third of the world’s population. Huawei is a private company, 100% owned by its employees, and is constantly engaged in management development complying with the international best practices.
The company currently has 196,000 employees, over 45% of whom are employed in the Research & Development sector. Huawei has built 14 Research & Development centers, 36 Joint Innovation Centers and 45 Training Centers worldwide. In 2019, the company invested $18.8 billion in Research & Development, 15.3% of its global revenue. Huawei’s total investment in research over the past 10 years has exceeded $86 billion.
Huawei has filed over 87,800 patents and, according to the UN World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in 2019 it is the first company in the world for international patent applications with 4,411 requests. In 2019, Huawei ranks first for patent applications filed at the European Patent Office (EPO) with 3,524 applications.
Huawei reported 19.1% year-on-year growth in 2019, with revenue of $123 billion and net profit of $9 billion.
Huawei operates in Italy since 2004 where in 2019 it recorded a turnover of 1.31 billion euros and has over 800 professionals (80% local), two main offices in Milan and Rome, offices in major cities, two centers of Global Research, five centers of Innovation.
Currently Huawei is carrying out research collaborations with 15 universities in Italy investing in joint projects.