Founded in 1987 with headquarters in Shenzhen, Huawei is global leader in the development, production and marketing of ICT products, systems and solutions, used in over 170 countries. Huawei is a private company, 100% owned by its employees, and is constantly engaged in management development following international best practices. The company currently counts 207,000 employees, 55% of whom are employed in Research & Development. In 2023, Huawei invested $ 23.3 billion in R&D, 23.4% of its global revenue. Huawei’s total investment in research over the past 10 years has exceeded $ 156 billion.
By the end of 2023, Huawei had more than 140,000 active patents worldwide and, according to the UN agency World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in 2023 it is the first company in the world for international patent applications with 6,494 applications for the seventh consecutive year. Once again Huawei is also first again in the ranking of patent applications filed with the European Patent Office (EPO) with 5,071 applications.
Huawei has been active in Italy since 2004, where it can count on over 700 professionals (80% local), with two head offices, in Milan and Rome, three Global Research centers, six Innovation Centers in partnership with telecommunications operators and four R&D Joint Labs in collaboration with Italian universities. Huawei currently has research partnerships with 36 universities in Italy which involve investments in joint research projects on optical technologies, semiconductors, 5G, AI, software, media, and Industry 4.0.
In 2021, Huawei also inaugurated the Cyber Security Transparency Center in Rome, the seventh center in the world dedicated by the company to cyber security with the aim of offering customers, partners, institutions and certification bodies a platform for sharing knowledge and best practices as well as for testing and testing hardware, software and source code. The Center is part of Huawei’s global investment in information security which is the highest in the industry, accounting for 5% of the company’s investment in research and development.
