Huawei’s Rotating Chairman, Eric Xu, said the company was optimising its portfolio to boost business resilience to cope with uncertainty brought about by geopolitical tensions, the resurgence of COVID-19, and US bans.
Xu was speaking at the company’s 18th Global Analyst Summit attended by industry and financial analysts, key opinion leaders, and media representatives.
“We want to boost the resilience of our entire business, and since last year we have been working to optimise our portfolio with this goal in mind,” said Xu.
Enhancing software engineering capabilities
Xu said one of the priorities was to further strengthen Huawei’s software engineering capabilities.
“We’re on the lookout for new business opportunities in the software sector. When we find the right fit, we will step up investment to increase the percentage of software and services in our revenue mix.”
Xu explained that the motivation for the recent restructuring of Huawei’s Cloud & AI Business Group, including its management team, was part of this process.
“Software is at the core of cloud. We aim to build a stronger software organisation and ensure it’s decoupled from hardware. Going forward, we will invest more in software to drive growth in this sector and pave the way for ongoing growth in the future.”
Autonomous driving a key focus
Autonomous driving software is another key focus of the company’s software investment plan. According to Xu, autonomous driving software is at the centre of entirely unmanned driving. With intense investment in autonomous driving software, Huawei hopes to drive these trends forward as they facilitate the integration of the automotive and ICT industries, which will in turn create long-term strategic opportunities.
“Once unmanned driving becomes a reality, we will see disruption in practically all adjacent sectors and trigger the most disruptive industry transformation the world will see in the next 10 years,” added Xu.
Huawei’s 2020 Annual Report shows the company’s sales revenue in 2020 rounded off at CNY891.4 billion, up 3.8% year-on-year, and its net profit reached CNY64.6 billion, up 3.2% year-on-year.
