Huawei's H1 net profit falls 32% amid R&D spending: report

[Huawei Technology France headquarters building near Paris, France]
Jean-Luc Ichard/iStock Editorial via Getty Images

Huawei Technologies saw a 32% decline in first-half net profit, while it continued to spend heavily on research and development to counter the impact of U.S. curbs.

Net profit for January to June amounted to 37B yuan (about $5.17B), according to a regulatory filing, the report added [https://www.reuters.com/world/china/huaweis-first-half-profit-plunges-heavy-rd-spending-2025-08-29/].

The Chinese tech giant's first-half revenue climbed 4% year-over-year to 427B yuan. It was the company's highest revenue for a first half since the same period in 2020, the report noted.

Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Seeking Alpha.

Huawei spent 96.9B yuan on research and development in January to June, compared to 88.9B yuan in the first six months of 2024, according to the report.

The company shipped 26.6M smartphones globally in the first half of 2025, up 1.7% from a year earlier, with 95% of all shipments directed towards China, according to data from IDC, the report noted.

Huawei was once in competition with Apple and Samsung (OTCPK:SSNLF [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/SSNLF]) to be the world's biggest handset maker until U.S. restrictions, starting in 2019, began to curb its access to chip manufacturing tools needed to produce its most advanced models. However, in the past two years, Huawei has been making a comeback [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4409216-huawei-launches-tri-foldable-phone-mate-xt-globally]. In August 2023, the company surprised many by quietly launching its new flagship smartphone, Mate 60 Pro. Last year, the company launched [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4334316-huawei-launches-mate-70-flagship-phones-while-fear-of-us-chip-curbs-loom#hasComeFromMpArticle] its flagship Mate 70 smartphone, Mate XT, and the Pura 70 series.

Huawei reclaimed [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4473110-apple-takes-5th-place-huawei-races-to-top-spot-in-china-smartphone-market-in-q2-canalys] the top spot in China's smartphone market in the second quarter of 2025, while Apple came in fifth, according to data from Canalys.

Huawei has also been developing AI chips. Last month, the company unveiled [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4472594-huawei-unveils-ai-computing-system-potential-rival-to-nvidias-most-advanced-product] an AI computing system that one industry expert has said rivals Nvidia's (NVDA [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/NVDA]) most advanced product. In May, Nvidia's CEO Jensen Huang discussed [https://seekingalpha.com/news/4439908-nvidia-discusses-concerns-about-huaweis-ai-capability-with-us-lawmakers#hasComeFromMpArticle] concerns about Huawei's growing AI prowess with U.S. lawmakers.

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