A rotten-tail building · Shenzhen, 1987 → world’s largest, 2018
From ¥21,000 to $105 billion.
Ren Zhengfei founded Huawei in 1987 with five thousand U.S. dollars in pooled capital,
in a half-built apartment in Shenzhen. Thirty-one years later the company employed
188,000 people across 170 countries, sold 200 million handsets, and spent more on R&D
than the Pentagon spent on basic research. This is what that arc looks like, plotted
against the year it happened.
Buys boxes from Hong Kong; resells to rural Chinese hotels and factories. By 1990 has 600 R&D staff reverse-engineering switches. C&C08 launches 1993.
1996 — 2003
Surrounding the cities
Periphery first — county seats and provincial markets where Ericsson and Alcatel won’t go. Mass-resignation ceremony, 1996. The Huawei Basic Law, 1998. Bangalore R&D, 1999. Cisco lawsuit, 2003.
2004 — 2011
International carrier
HiSilicon spun out April 2004. Vodafone Approved Supplier 2005. Africa, Middle East, Latin America. Enters Fortune Global 500 in 2010 at $21.8B revenue.
2012 — 2018
Silicon, then handsets
Surpasses Ericsson 2012. Kirin 950 (2015) and 970 (2017) close the mobile-SoC gap. By 2018 the consumer division overtakes carrier as the largest revenue line. 200M handsets shipped.
SEP 1987
A rotten-tail building
Six investors pool ¥21,000 (~$5,000) and register Huawei at the Shenzhen Development Center, an apartment block abandoned mid-construction.
JAN 1996
Mass resignation ceremony
Every regional sales manager submits a letter of resignation. Most are refused; the message is unmistakable. Mao’s register meets corporate practice.
APR 2004
HiSilicon spun out
An internal ASIC group becomes a registered fabless company. Initially makes infrastructure parts, then mobile baseband, then SoCs.
JUL 2010
Fortune Global 500
Annual sales of $21.8 billion put Huawei into the top 500 for the first time. Net profit: $2.67 billion.
JUN 2012
Passes Ericsson
Becomes the world’s largest telecommunications-equipment vendor by revenue. Most of the world’s public does not notice. Carriers do.
DEC 2018
Vancouver airport
CFO Meng Wanzhou is detained on a U.S. extradition request. Ren Zhengfei opens his door to foreign press for the first time in three decades.
2018 / Peak
200M
handsets shipped
$14.4B
R&D spend · 14% of revenue
“The volcano under Huawei,” Ren Zhengfei told Caixin in 2019, “is about to erupt.”
For the year ending 31 December 2018, Huawei’s revenue crossed
$100 billion for the first time. The company employed 188,000 people across 170 countries
and had become, briefly, the world’s largest smartphone vendor by units.
The same year, ZTE was switched off in three weeks by a memo from Washington.
The arc above is what Huawei looked like the moment before it became the
center of the chip war.