Huawei revenue rises despite global backlash

Chinese vendor undeterred despite unrest among multiple governments

Huawei has had a stellar start to the year with sales rocketing up 39 per cent to $26.8bn in its Q1, despite mounting pressure from the US to undermine the vendor.

US authorities has spent much of the last 12 months trying to build a coalition against the Chinese company on the grounds that Huawei poses a "security risk", pointing to allegations of cyber espionage and fraud.

Undeterred, Huawei announced in February this year, that it will invest in the UK to the tune of an additional £3.45bn as a result.

In the rest of the EMEA market, despite several other governments voicing public concerns, such as Germany launching a national review into Huawei, no European countries have joined the boycott.

Being unable to do business in the world's largest economy has done little to dampen the start of Huawei's FY2019, with the firm claiming profits were over $2bn for the quarter.

Huawei says most of it double-digit growth was fuelled by focus on ICT infrastructure and in continuing to outpace the market in smart devices shipments.

It claims that it shipped 59 million smartphones in its Q1.

In its FY2018, Huawei's smartphone shipments rose 33.6 per cent year on year, the fastest growth rate in the industry.

During the same period, Samsung shipments declined eight per cent and Apple shipments by 3.2 per cent.

On infrastructure, Huawei says it also shipped 70,000 5G base stations in its Q1.

The vendor says it sees maintaining its dominance in 5G as a priority.

In March, it opened a cybersecurity lab in Brussels in a further attempt to reassure European legislators that the Chinese giant does not pose a security risk.

Huawei's strong Q1 results comes just days after the CIA shared intel with British security chiefs that the company has taken money from the People's Liberation Army, China's National Security Commission and a third branch of the Chinese state intelligence network, according to the Times.

The UK is entering the final stage of a review into whether to allow Huawei to be a part of the country's next generation mobile network roll out.