American technology giants are known for pouring ridiculous sums of money into research and development, something that many people don’t expect from Chinese companies. However, not only does Huawei appear to be the exception, it’s actually spending more than even some of the largest American tech companies out there, including Apple, Facebook, and IBM.
Chinese tech company Huawei is doubling down on research and development. In reporting its annual financial performance today (March 31), the company said it invested 40.8 billion yuan, or $6.6 billion, in research and development in 2014, up 29% from the year prior. Overall, it’s spent 190 billion yuan in innovation over the past decade. These numbers are massive even by the standards of American tech companies. Last year, Huawei outpaced Apple, Oracle, and Facebook in its R&D investments. However, it still trails Microsoft, Google, and Amazon in total R&D dollars spent. Relative to overall revenue, Huawei is actually spending more on R&D (14.2% of revenue) than Microsoft (12%) and Amazon (10.4%), and isn’t far behind Google (14.9%). However, tech companies with lower revenues—such as Facebook, which reported revenue of $12.47 billion last year, and Twitter, which reported $1.4 billion—are investing more of their top line in innovation, as illustrated in the chart below.
