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 190,000+ employees, 50% of whom are employed in Research & Development. In 2021, Huawei invested $ 22.4 billion in R&D, 22% of its global revenue. Huawei’s total investment in research over the past 10 years has exceeded $ 132 billion.
Huawei has registered 112,849 patents and, according to the UN agency World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), in 2021 it is the first company in the world for international patent applications with 6,952 applications for the fifth consecutive year. Huawei also ranks first in the ranking of patent applications filed with the European Patent Office (EPO) with 3,544 applications. It also ranked 44 in the 2021 Fortune Global 500.
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, other offices in major cities, three Global Research centers, six Innovation centers in partnership with telecommunications operators and 5 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, industry 4.0. In 2021, Huawei invested 7.6 million euros in cooperation projects between Huawei’s research and development centers and Italian universities.
In March 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.
