BEIJING, March 31 (Reuters) - China's Huawei Technologies (HWT.UL) reported 2.2 growth in 2025 revenue on Tuesday, helped by its core businesses of infrastructure network and consumer devices, while its cloud computing operation saw a revenue decline.
The Shenzhen-based company posted 2025 sales revenue of 880.9 billion yuan ($127.5 billion), up 2.2% from a year earlier, marking a sharp slowdown from 22.4% growth recorded in 2024.
The 2025 result marks Huawei's second-highest annual revenue, trailing a record 891 billion yuan sales achieved in 2020. Net profit rose 8.6% to 68 billion yuan.
Huawei's smartphone business had suffered a dramatic decline after U.S. sanctions restricted access to advanced chips and Google's Android operating system, driving its total revenue down 29% in 2021. Last year was the fourth consecutive year of growth since that trough.
Revenue from the consumer unit, which includes smartphones and other digital devices, rose 1.6% to 344.5 billion yuan, while its information and communication technology infrastructure segment — the largest revenue contributor — posted 2.6% growth in sales to 375 billion yuan, Huawei said in a statement.
Its smaller yet important cloud computing business reported a 3.5% drop in revenue, highlighting fierce competition in China's crowded market. Its intelligent automotive solutions unit, which helps traditional automakers develop smart vehicles, saw a revenue surge of 72.1% to 45 billion yuan.
Huawei continued to allocate significant resources to research and development to mitigate the effects of ongoing U.S. sanctions.
R&D spending surged to 192.3 billion yuan in 2025, representing 22% of its annual revenue, as the company invested heavily in software, chips and manufacturing tools to reduce reliance on restricted U.S. technology.
In a statement, chairwoman Meng Wanzhou, daughter of Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei, said the company is navigating a future "full of uncertainty," and pledged that Huawei would continue cultivating its developer ecosystem.
Huawei's new Ascend AI chips 950PR, which have been made more compatible with Nvidia's CUDA software system, have been tested at big Chinese tech firms including ByteDance and Alibaba.
Huawei, which designs both Ascend AI chips and Kunpeng CPUs, said its Ascend ecosystem had over 4 million developers by the end of last year while its Kunpeng had 3.8 million developers.
"Our computing business continued to seize opportunities in AI," Meng said.
Huawei said its 384 SuperPod, an AI computing system debuted last year that is designed to rival Nvidia's GB200 NVL 72, has found customers in industries such as internet, finance and telecommunications.
($1 = 6.9058 Chinese yuan renminbi)
Reporting by Che Pan and Laurie Chen Editing by Keith Weir
Source: Reuters