Huawei

Former Chinese military officer Ren Zhengfei started Huawei with $5,680 in Shenzhen. Three decades later Huawei has grown to a world-leading telecommunications provider, with $109 billion in annual sales, triple what it was five years ago. Huawei boasts 180,000 employees in some 170 countries. With a 20% market share, Huawei is China’s largest smartphone seller and it ranks as the world’s second largest, after Samsung. Despite its success in most of the world, Huawei has not made major inroads in the U.S.; due to security concerns the U.S. government has discouraged U.S. carriers from buying Huawei telecom equipment. Google dealt the brand a major blow when it restricted Huawei’s access to its Android operating system and apps after the Trump administration blacklisted the firm.