Huawei Details R&D Investments and HarmonyOS Ecosystem Expansion

Richard Yu, Executive Director and Chairman of Huawei's Consumer Business Group, shared insights into the company's strategic focus on research and development, its HarmonyOS ecosystem, and advancements in semiconductor technology during a recent roundtable with international media.

Yu stated that Huawei has invested more than CNY1.8 trillion into research and development between 2007 and the end of 2025. He noted that R&D investment has grown from approximately 10% of annual revenue in earlier years to over 20% in recent years. This sustained investment aims to bolster core capabilities in the ICT domain and basic research, leading to technological breakthroughs.

"As the world enters the AI era, even more innovation and investment are needed," Yu said. "Huawei is continuing to forge ahead."

Huawei's consumer business strategy over the next decade centers on delivering a "seamless AI life experience" across five key scenarios: HIMA-powered Smart Travel, HarmonyOS Office, Smart Home, Fitness & Health, and Entertainment. The company offers a range of products including smartphones, PCs, tablets, wearables, TWS audio products, Smart TVs, home routers, and smart home control solutions. It also collaborates with partners on intelligent electric vehicles.

HarmonyOS, developed by Huawei, now powers over 90 million devices and is projected to reach 100 million by year-end. The operating system supports a variety of smart devices and hardware, positioning it as an alternative ecosystem to iOS and Android. Huawei is also leveraging its Ascend compute foundation, openPangu models, and Celia assistant to drive AI integration across consumer, corporate, and telecommunications sectors.

Despite challenges in the global smartphone market, Huawei is maintaining an international presence through wearables, TWS earphones, CPE connectivity devices, and HarmonyOS tablets. The company plans to cautiously expand HarmonyOS globally.

Semiconductor Advancements

The latest Mate 90 series smartphones feature the Kirin 9050 Pro chip, which Huawei states offers a 31% performance increase over its predecessor. The chip incorporates in-house designed components such as the Balong modem, image sensor processor (ISP), mobile security processor (MSP), Lingxi CPU, Maleoon GPU, and an NPU utilizing Huawei's Da Vinci architecture for AI processing. Yu highlighted that these components achieve higher energy efficiency and improved system-level performance.

Recently, Huawei announced a breakthrough in semiconductor technology with its "LogicFolding" technology under the Tau Scaling Law. Introduced in May by He Tingbo, head of Huawei’s Semiconductor Business Department, this technology vertically stacks logic layers and restructures circuit layout to shorten critical paths and reduce latency. The Kirin 9050 Pro chip incorporates this new technology.

Foldable Phone Innovation

Huawei's foldable phone initiatives have seen significant traction. The Mate XT2, the second generation of its tri-fold phone products, has shipped nearly 100,000 units shortly after its release, with total shipments of its predecessor and optimized model exceeding 1 million units. Yu estimates the second generation will also surpass 1 million units.

Yu noted that Huawei has been developing foldable phones for eight years and claims to be a pioneer in the sector, citing its "waterdrop" advanced precision hinge system as a key innovation that allows the phone to close seamlessly with no gap.

The company also launched the Pura X Max, a widescreen foldable phone, in April. Yu mentioned that reports of a US competitor developing a similar phone emerged around the same time. He stated that sales of the Pura X Max increased by 76% in the week following the launch of Apple's foldable product, and its total sales have exceeded 1 million units.

"We welcome our peers to join us in the competition and deliver better products and services to consumers," Yu said. "Such healthy competition can also motivate more users to choose foldable phones."

Huawei has addressed challenges in foldable phone camera design through miniaturization technology, claiming its latest foldable phone's camera performance rivals that of some flagship slab phones. The company also emphasized its efforts in ensuring the reliability of foldable screens and hinge systems through continuous innovation and extensive testing, contributing to its reported 75% share of the Chinese foldable phone market.