Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.

(/ˈhwɑːˌweɪ/; Chinese: 华为; pinyin: About this

soundHuáwéi) is a Chinese multinational technology company. It provides
telecommunications equipment and sells consumer electronics, smartphones[4] and is
headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong.

The company was founded in 1987 by Ren Zhengfei. Initially focused on manufacturing
phone switches, Huawei has expanded its business to include building
telecommunications networks, providing operational and consulting services and
equipment to enterprises inside and outside of China, and manufacturing
communications devices for the consumer market.[5][6] Huawei has over 194,000
employees as of December 2019.[1]

Huawei has deployed its products and services in more than 170 countries.[7] Huawei
overtook Ericsson in 2012 as the largest telecommunications-equipment manufacturer
in the world,[8] and overtook Apple in 2018 as the second-largest manufacturer of
smartphones in the world, behind Samsung Electronics.[9] In December 2019, Huawei
reported that its annual revenue had risen to US$121.72 billion in 2019.[10]

Although successful internationally, Huawei has faced difficulties in some markets,

due to unverified claims of undue state support and cybersecurity concerns—
primarily from the United States government—that Huawei's infrastructure equipment
may enable surveillance by the Chinese government.[11] With the development of 5G
wireless networks, there have been calls from the U.S. to prevent the use of
products by Huawei by the U.S. and its allies. Huawei has argued that its products
posed "no greater cybersecurity risk" than those of any other vendor and that there
is no evidence of the U.S. espionage claims.[12] Nonetheless, Huawei pulled out of
the U.S. consumer market in 2018, after these concerns affected the ability to
market their consumer products there. Questions regarding Huawei's ownership and
control as well as concerns regarding the extent of state support also remain.[11]

In the midst of ongoing trade and technology tensions between China and United
States, Huawei was restricted from doing commerce with U.S. companies due to
alleged previous willful violations of U.S. sanctions against Iran. Huawei cut 600
jobs at its Santa Clara research center in June 2019, and in December 2019 founder
Ren Zhengfei said he was moving the center to Canada because the restrictions would
block them from interacting with US employees.[13][14]

Contents
1 Name
2 History
2.1 Early years
2.2 Foreign expansion
2.3 Recent performance
2.4 Political controversies
2.4.1 U.S. business restrictions
2.4.1.1 Replacement operating systems
3 Corporate affairs
3.1 Leadership
3.1.1 Board of Directors
3.1.2 Executives
3.2 Ownership
4 Partners
5 Products and services
5.1 Telecom networks
5.2 Global services
5.3 Devices
5.3.1 History of Huawei phones
5.3.2 EMUI (Emotion User Interface)
6 Competitive position
6.1 R&D centers
7 Controversies
8 See also
9 References
10 External links
Name
Huawei
Huawei (Chinese characters).svg
"Huawei" in Simplified (top) and Traditional (bottom) Chinese characters
Simplified Chinese 华为
Traditional Chinese 華為
Literal meaning "Splendid achievement" or "China's achievement"
Transcriptions
Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd.
Simplified Chinese 华为技术有限公司
Traditional Chinese 華為技術有限公司
Transcriptions
According to the company founder Ren Zhengfei, the name Huawei comes from a slogan
he saw on a wall, Zhonghua youwei meaning "China has promise" (中华有为, Zhōnghuá
yǒuwéi), when he was starting the company and needed a name.[15] Zhonghua or Hua
means China,[16] while youwei means "promising/to show promise".[17][18] Huawei has
also been translated as "splendid achievement" or "China is able" which are
possible readings to the name.[19] In Chinese pinyin, the name is Huáwéi,[20] and
pronounced [xwǎwéi] in Mandarin Chinese; in Cantonese, the name is transliterated
with Jyutping as Waa4-wai4 and pronounced [wȁːwɐ̏i]. However, pronunciation of
Huawei by non-Chinese varies in other countries, for example "Hoe-ah-wei" in the
Netherlands.[21] The company had considered changing the name in English as it was
concerned that non-Chinese may find the name hard to pronounce,[22] but decided to
keep the name, and launched a name recognition campaign instead to encourage a
pronunciation closer to "Wah-Way" using the words "Wow Way".[23][24]

History
Early years
During the 1980s, the Chinese government tried to modernize the country's
underdeveloped telecommunications infrastructure. A core component of the
telecommunications network was telephone exchange switches, and in the late 1980s,
several Chinese research groups endeavored to acquire and develop the technology,
usually through joint ventures with foreign companies.

Ren Zhengfei, a former deputy director of the People's Liberation Army engineering
corps, founded Huawei in 1987 in Shenzhen. The company reports that it had RMB
21,000 in registered capital at the time of its founding.

Ren sought to reverse engineer foreign technologies with local researchers. At a

time when all of China's telecommunications technology was imported from abroad,
Ren hoped to build a domestic Chinese telecommunication company that could compete
with, and ultimately replace, foreign competitors.[25]

During its first several years the company's business model consisted mainly of
reselling private branch exchange (PBX) switches imported from Hong Kong.[5][26]
Meanwhile, it was reverse-engineering imported switches and investing heavily in
research and development to manufacture its own technologies.[5] By 1990 the
company had approximately 600 R&D staff and began its own independent
commercialization of PBX switches targeting hotels and small enterprises.[27]

The company's first major breakthrough came in 1993 when it launched its C&C08
program controlled telephone switch. It was by far the most powerful switch
available in China at the time. By initially deploying in small cities and rural
areas and placing emphasis on service and customizability, the company gained
market share and made its way into the mainstream market.[28]

Huawei also won a key contract to build the first national telecommunications
network for the People's Liberation Army, a deal one employee described as "small
in terms of our overall business, but large in terms of our relationships".[29] In
1994, founder Ren Zhengfei had a meeting with Party general secretary Jiang Zemin,
telling him that "switching equipment technology was related to national security,
and that a nation that did not have its own switching equipment was like one that
lacked its own military." Jiang reportedly agreed with this assessment.[5]

In the 1990s Canadian telecom giant Nortel outsourced production of their entire
product line to Huawei.[30] They subsequently outsourced much of their product
engineering to Huawei as well.[31]

Another major turning point for the company came in 1996 when the government in
Beijing adopted an explicit policy of supporting domestic telecommunications
manufacturers and restricting access to foreign competitors. Huawei was promoted by
both the government and the military as a national champion, and established new
research and development offices.[5]

Foreign expansion
Huawei Offices

In Voorburg, Netherlands

In Markham, Ontario, Canada

In 1997, Huawei won a contract to provide fixed-line network products to Hong Kong
company Hutchison Whampoa.[28] Later that year, Huawei launched its wireless GSM-
based products and eventually expanded to offer CDMA and UMTS. In 1999, the company
opened a research and development (R&D) center in Bangalore, India to develop a
wide range of telecom software.[27]

In May 2003, Huawei partnered with 3Com on a joint venture known as H3C, which was
focused on enterprise networking equipment. It marked 3Com's re-entrance into the
high-end core routers and switch market, after having abandoned it in 2000 to focus
on other businesses. 3Com bought out Huawei's share of the venture in 2006 for
US$882 million.[32][33]

In 2005, Huawei's foreign contract orders exceeded its domestic sales for the first
time. Huawei signed a Global Framework Agreement with Vodafone. This agreement
marked the first time a telecommunications equipment supplier from China had
received Approved Supplier status from Vodafone Global Supply Chain.[34][non-
primary source needed] Huawei also signed a contract with British Telecom (BT) for
the deployment of its multi-service access network (MSAN) and Transmission
equipment for BT's 21st Century Network (21CN).[citation needed]

In 2007, Huawei began a joint venture with U.S. security software vendor Symantec
Corporation, known as Huawei Symantec, which aimed to provide end-to-end solutions
for network data storage and security. Huawei bought out Symantec's share in the
venture in 2012, with The New York Times noting that Symantec had fears that the
partnership "would prevent it from obtaining United States government classified
information about cyberthreats".[35]

In May 2008, Australian carrier Optus announced that it would establish a

technology research facility with Huawei in Sydney.[36] In October 2008, Huawei
reached an agreement to contribute to a new GSM-based HSPA+ network being deployed
jointly by Canadian carriers Bell Mobility and Telus Mobility, joined by Nokia
Siemens Networks.[37] Huawei delivered one of the world's first LTE/EPC commercial
networks for TeliaSonera in Oslo, Norway in 2009.[27]

In July 2010, Huawei was included in the Global Fortune 500 2010 list published by
the U.S. magazine Fortune for the first time, on the strength of annual sales of
US$21.8 billion and net profit of US$2.67 billion.[38][39]

In October 2012, it was announced that Huawei would move its UK headquarters to
Green Park, Reading, Berkshire.[40]

In September 2017, Huawei created a NarrowBand IOT city-aware network using a "one
network, one platform, N applications" construction model utilising IoT, cloud
computing, big data, and other next-generation information and communications
technology, it also aims to be one of the world's five largest cloud players in the
near future.[41][42]

In April 2019, Huawei established Huawei Malaysia Global Training Centre (MGTC) at
Cyberjaya, Malaysia,[43] which is Huawei's first training centre outside of China.

In September 2019 Huawei filed a defamation lawsuit against a French researcher and
a television show which had hosted her.[44] The researcher, with the Foundation for
Strategic Research, had noted that Ren Zhengfei was a former PLA member and that
Huawei functions as an arm of the Chinese government.[45] This was the first time
Huawei had sued a researcher for defamation for stating common opinions and
recognized facts.[46]

Recent performance

Huawei expo at IFA 2018 in Berlin

As of the end of 2018, Huawei sold 200 million smartphones.[47] They reported that
strong consumer demand for premium range smart phones helped the company reach
consumer sales in excess of $52 billion in 2018.[48]

Huawei announced worldwide revenues of $105.1 billion for 2018, with a net profit
of $8.7 billion.[49] Huawei's Q1 2019 revenues were up 39% year-over-year, at
US$26.76 billion.[50]

In 2019, Huawei reported revenue of US$122 billion.[51]

Political controversies
Further information: Criticism of Huawei
Huawei has been at the center of espionage allegations over Chinese 5G network
equipment. In 2018, the United States passed a defense funding bill that contained
a passage barring the federal government from doing business with Huawei, ZTE, and
several Chinese vendors of surveillance products, due to security concerns.[52][53]
[54]

On 1 December 2018, Huawei vice-chairwoman and CFO Meng Wanzhou,[55] daughter of

company founder Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Canada at the request of U.S.
authorities. She faced extradition to the United States on charges of violating
sanctions against Iran.[56] On 22 August 2018 an arrest warrant was issued by the
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.[57] Meng was charged with
"conspiracy to defraud multiple international institutions", according to the
prosecutor.[58] The warrant was based on allegations of a conspiracy to defraud
banks which were clearing money that was claimed to be for Huawei, but was actually
for Skycom, an en

On 28 January 2019, U.S. federal prosecutors formally indicted Meng and Huawei with
13 counts of bank and wire fraud (in order to mask sale of U.S. technology in Iran
that is illegal under sanctions), obstruction of justice, and misappropriating
trade secrets.[61][62] The Department also filed a formal extradition request for
Meng with Canadian authorities that same day. Huawei responded to the charges and
said that it "denies that it or its subsidiary or affiliate have committed any of
the asserted violations", as well as asserted Meng was similarly innocent. The
China Ministry of Industry and Information Technology believed the charges brought
on by the United States were "unfair".[63] In November 2019, Huawei announced that
it will pay RMB2 billion (US$286 million) in bonuses to its staff, and double their
October salaries, as a reward for their efforts to counter the effect of recent
U.S. trade sanctions on their supply chain.[64]

Shortly after Meng's detention, Chinese authorities arrested Canadian former

diplomat Michael Kovrig and consultant Michael Spavor on charges of espionage.[65]
This was widely seen as a retaliatory move, and other subsequent arrests were also
questioned.[66] These arrests have been viewed as hostage diplomacy,[67] as has the
subsequent arrest of Australian Yang Hengjun.[68][69][70]

"Canada is not the only one grappling with the Gordian knot of national security,
global alliance and competitive market issues that Huawei represents," wrote the
Financial post, noting that Australia and New Zealand have banned Huawei equipment,
Britain is weighing its options, and the situation in the United States is
"complicated".[14]

In September 2019, Microsoft's top lawyer and president Brad Smith expressed
concern about the continued US ban of Huawei products and services. In an interview
with Bloomberg Businessweek, he remarked that the ban shouldn't be imposed without
a "sound basis in fact, logic, and the rule of law". Microsoft Corporation, which
supplies Windows 10 for Huawei PCs, says the allegations by the Trump
administration that Huawei is a genuine national security threat to the US are not
supported by any evidence.[71]

In February 2020, US government officials claimed that Huawei has had the ability
to covertly exploit backdoors intended for law enforcement officials in carrier
equipment like antennas and routers since 2009.[72][73] The US Department of
Justice (DoJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) charged Huawei with
racketeering and conspiring to steal trade secrets from six US firms.[74][75]

U.S. business restrictions

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In August 2018, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (NDAA
2019) was signed into law, containing a provision that banned Huawei and ZTE
equipment from being used by the U.S. federal government, citing security concerns.
[76] Huawei filed a lawsuit over the act in March 2019,[77] alleging it to be
unconstitutional because it specifically targeted Huawei without granting it a
chance to provide a rebuttal or due process.[78]

On 15 May 2019, the Department of Commerce added Huawei and 70 foreign subsidiaries
and "affiliates" to its entity list under the Export Administration Regulations,
citing the company having been indicted for "knowingly and willfully causing the
export, re-export, sale and supply, directly and indirectly, of goods, technology
and services (banking and other financial services) from the United States to Iran
and the government of Iran without obtaining a license from the Department of
Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)".[79] This restricts U.S.
companies from doing business with Huawei without a government license.[80][81][82]
[83]

Various U.S.-based companies immediately froze their business with Huawei to comply
with the regulation,[84] including Google—which removes its ability to certify
future devices and updates for the Android operating system with licensed Google
Mobile Services (GMS) such as Google Play Store,[85][86] as well as Broadcom,
Intel, Qualcomm, Microsoft, Xilinx[87] and Western Digital. The German chipmaker
Infineon Technologies also voluntarily suspended its business with Huawei, pending
"assessments".[86][88][89] It was reported that Huawei did have a limited
"stockpile" of U.S.-sourced parts, obtained prior to the sanctions.[90]

On 17 May 2019, Huawei voluntarily suspended its membership to JEDEC, as a

temporary measure, "until the restrictions imposed by the U.S. government are
removed".[91] Speaking to Chinese media, Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei accused U.S.
politicians of underestimating the company's strength, and explained that "in terms
of 5G technologies, others won't be able to catch up with Huawei in two or three
years. We have sacrificed ourselves and our families for our ideal, to stand on top
of the world. To reach this ideal, sooner or later there will be conflict with the
US."[92][93][94]

Kevin Wolf, an international trade lawyer and former assistant secretary of

commerce for export administration during the Obama administration, argued that
Huawei could not even use the open source Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code,
as it could fall under U.S. trade regulations as technology of U.S. origin because
Google is the majority developer.[95] In China, it is normal for Android phones
(including those of Huawei) to not include Google Play Store or GMS, as Google does
not do business in the region. Phones are typically bundled with an AOSP-based
distribution built around an OEM's own software suite, including either a first-
party app store run by the OEM (such as Huawei's own AppGallery) or a third-party
service.[96][97][98]

Google issued a statement assuring that user access to Google Play on existing
Huawei devices would not be disrupted. Huawei made a similar pledge of continued
support for existing devices, including security patches, but did not make any
statements regarding the availability of future Android versions (such as the
upcoming Android 10, previously called Android Q).[99][100] On 19 May 2019, the
Department of Commerce granted Huawei a temporary, three-month license to continue
doing business with U.S. companies for the purposes of maintaining its existing
smartphone and telecom products without interruption, whilst long-term solutions
are determined.[101][102][103][104]

On 22 May 2019, Arm Holdings also suspended its business with Huawei, including all
"active contracts, support entitlements, and any pending engagements". Although it
is a Japanese-owned company based in the UK, Arm cited that its intellectual
property contained technologies of U.S. origin that it believed were covered under
the Department of Commerce order. This prevents Huawei from manufacturing chips
that use the ARM architecture.[105] It was also reported that several Asian
wireless carriers, including Japan's SoftBank and KDDI, and Taiwan's Chunghwa
Telecom and Taiwan Mobile, had suspended the sale of upcoming Huawei devices such
as the P30 Lite, citing uncertainties over the effects of the U.S. sanctions on the
availability of the Android platform. NTT docomo similarly suspended pre-orders of
new Huawei phones, without citing any reasoning.[106]

On 23 May 2019, it was reported that the SD Association had removed Huawei from its
list of members—implicating a revocation of its membership to the association.[107]
The same day, Toshiba briefly suspended all shipments to Huawei, as a temporary
measure while determining whether or not they were selling U.S. made components or
technologies to Huawei.[108] Panasonic also stated that it had determined its
business relationship to be in compliance with U.S. law, and would not suspend it.
[109] The next day, the Wi-Fi Alliance also "temporarily restricted" Huawei's
membership.[91][110]

On 24 May 2019, Huawei told Reuters that FedEx attempted to divert two packages
sent from Japan and addressed to Huawei in China to the United States, and tried to
divert two more packages sent from Vietnam to Huawei offices elsewhere in Asia, all
without their authorization. At first, FedEx China claimed that "media reports are
not true". On May 28, however, they apologized on their Chinese social media
account for the fact that "a small number of Huawei shipments were misrouted", and
claimed that "there are no external parties that require FedEx to ship these
shipments" .[111][112][113]

On 29 May 2019, it was reported that Huawei was once again listed as member of
JEDEC, the SD Association, and Wi-Fi Alliance.[114] In addition, while the science
organization IEEE had initially banned Huawei employees from peer-reviewing papers
or handling papers as editors on May 30, 2019, citing legal concerns, that ban was
also revoked on June 3, 2019.[115]

On 31 May 2019, it was reported that Huawei had temporarily stopped its smartphone
production lines. [116]

On 17 June 2019, it was reported that Huawei was preparing for a sales drop of
US$30 Billion, selling 40 million to 60 million smartphones less than last year in
overseas markets. [117][118]

On 29 June 2019 at the G20 summit, Trump and Chinese president and general
secretary Xi Jinping agreed to resume trade negotiations. Trump made statements
implicating plans to ease the restrictions on U.S. companies doing business with
Huawei, explaining that they had sold a "tremendous amount of products" to the
company, that they "were not exactly happy that they couldn't sell", and that he
was referring to "equipment where there's no great national security problem with
it." BBC News considered this move to be a "significant concession".[119][120][121]

On October 25, 2019, ARM announced that it has decided to keep supplying Huawei
with its chip designs after its legal team concluded that its v8 and v9
architectures are of non-U.S. origin. That means supplying these technologies to
the Chinese firm will not violate existing U.S. restrictions, ARM says.[122]

On November 5, 2019, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross confirmed in an interview

with Bloomberg that they are on phase one of a trade deal between the US and China.
After this, US companies will be allowed to work with Huawei.[123]

Replacement operating systems

During the sanctions, it was noted that Huawei had been working on its own in-house
operating system codenamed "HongMeng OS": in an interview with Die Welt, executive
Richard Yu stated that an in-house OS could be used as a "plan B" if it were
prevented from using Android or Windows as the result of U.S. action, but that he
would "prefer to work with the ecosystems of Google and Microsoft". Efforts to
develop an in-house OS at Huawei date back as far as 2012.[124][125][126] Huawei
filed trademarks for the names "Ark", "Ark OS", and "Harmony" in Europe, which were
speculated to be connected to this OS.[127][128]

In June 2019, Huawei communications VP Andrew Williamson told Reuters that the
company was testing HongMeng in China, and that it could be ready "in months".
However, in July 2019, chairman Liang Hua and senior vice president Catherine Chen
stated that Hongmeng OS was not actually intended as a mobile operating system for
smartphones, and was actually an embedded operating system designed for Internet of
things (IoT) hardware.[129][130][131]

In September 2019, Huawei began offering the Chinese Linux distribution Deepin as
an optional pre-loaded operating system on selected Matebook models in China, as an
alternative to Windows.[132]

Corporate affairs
Huawei classifies itself as a "collective" entity and prior to 2019 did not refer
to itself as a private company. Richard McGregor, author of The Party: The Secret
World of China's Communist Rulers, said that this is "a definitional distinction
that has been essential to the company's receipt of state support at crucial points
in its development".[133] McGregor argued that "Huawei's status as a genuine
collective is doubtful."[133] Huawei's position has shifted in 2019 when, Dr. Song
Liuping, Huawei's chief legal officer, commented on the US government ban, said:
"Politicians in the US are using the strength of an entire nation to come after a
private company." (emphasis added).[134]

Leadership
Ren Zhengfei is the founder and CEO of Huawei and has the power to veto any
decisions made by the board of directors.[135][136]

Board of Directors
Huawei disclosed its list of board of directors for the first time in 2010.[137]
Liang Hua is the current chair of the board. As of 2019, the members of the board
are Liang Hua, Guo Ping, Xu Zhijun, Hu Houkun, Meng Wanzhou (CFO and deputy
chairwoman, currently out on bail in Vancouver,[138] after being arrested there on
December 1, 2018, after an extradition request of US authorities on suspicion of
Iran sanctions evasion[139]), Ding Yun, Yu Ch