Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported on the 24th that Huawei, China's largest telecom equipment maker, posted sales of 880 billion yuan (about 185 trillion won) last year. It was the second-largest result on record, showing sales growth despite U.S. sanctions.
Huawei Chair Liang Hua attended the "2026 Guangdong High-Quality Development Conference" hosted by the Guangdong provincial government in China that day and said last year's sales surpassed 880 billion yuan. That was up 2.3% from sales of 862.1 billion yuan the previous year (2024) and slightly below the all-time high recorded in 2020 (about 891.4 billion yuan).
Liang said, "Last year, Huawei worked to provide competitive products and services to customers worldwide and to maintain stable business operations."
In particular, Huawei's rebound in the smartphone sector stood out last year. According to market research firm IDC, Huawei shipped 46.7 million smartphones last year to capture a 16.4% share of the mainland China market, edging out Apple (16.2%) to reclaim the No. 1 spot. In a previous 2024 share survey, Vivo ranked first (17.2%), Huawei second (16.6%), and Apple third (15.5%).
This is the first time since 2020—when access to advanced semiconductors and the Android operating system was restricted by U.S. sanctions—that Huawei has taken the No. 1 spot in smartphone share in China. The market says Huawei has adapted to U.S. sanctions through its domestic base in China and a restructuring of its business.
Users of Huawei's own operating system "HarmonyOS," which the company is rolling out, are also increasing rapidly. Liang said that day, "Devices running HarmonyOS 5 and the latest operating system HarmonyOS 6 have surpassed 40 million units, and more than 75,000 applications and services are available."
Beyond electronics, Huawei is also ramping up investment in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. Centered on its self-designed AI chip "Ascend," the company is expanding its influence across the AI ecosystem. Liang said at least 43 major large AI models were pre-trained on Ascend chips, and more than 200 open-source models are compatible with the Ascend ecosystem.