Chinese telecommunications firm Huawei Technologies continues to bounce back after taking an initial hit from U.S. sanctions resulting from the company being declared a national security threat in 2019. Year-over-year, net profit surged 564 percent to $2.7 billion in Q1, with revenue up 37 percent to $24.65 billion. It was the company’s fourth consecutive quarterly profit gain. Although Huawei doesn’t breakout performance for individual sectors, analysts estimate the company’s smartphone sales rose 70 percent, leading to further speculation the global firm is taking market share from rivals, particularly Apple in China.

“Apple’s iPhone sales in China fell 19 percent during the March quarter,” according to analytics firm Counterpoint, Bloomberg reports, noting the 36-year-old Chinese multinational “made an unexpected comeback last year with a new 5G phone powered by an advanced made-in-China 7-nanometer chip,” manufactured despite U.S. efforts to keep such technology from Chinese firms.

“The response by Chinese consumers to last summer’s surprise introduction of the Huawei Mate 60 series, powered by the first 5G-enabled chipset used in a Huawei phone since 2020’s Mate 40 line,” is largely credited with the strong results, according to PhoneArena.

“The Kirin 9000S SoC [system on a chip] used on the Mate 60 line shocked U.S. lawmakers who thought that the export rule they created in 2020 would prevent Huawei from obtaining application processors (AP) that support 5G,” PhoneArena continues.

The rule prohibits foundries that utilize American tech from selling advanced silicon to Huawei under threat of also losing their American access. “The Kirin 9000S was manufactured by China’s largest foundry, SMIC, using its 7nm process node leaving it two generations behind the A17 Pro AP that powers the iPhone 15 Pro series,” PhoneArena reports.

The privately held Huawei, founded by a former member in China’s People’s Liberation Army “reports a handful of unaudited financial figures throughout the year and releases a more detailed audited annual report each spring,” explains The Wall Street Journal, adding that “in a departure from previous quarters, Shenzhen-based Huawei didn’t provide a press release accompanying the latest figures.”

The figures were announced after research firm IDC last week released numbers indicating “Huawei’s smartphone shipments in China more than doubled in the first quarter from a year earlier, putting it alongside rival Honor as the top smartphone sellers in China, the world’s largest smartphone market,” WSJ writes.

“Huawei also started selling its highly anticipated, high-end Pura 70 smartphone series this month,” says Reuters, adding that the company has also “become a force in smart car technology, with its driver assistance system touted by at least seven Chinese automakers at the Beijing auto show.”

Related:
Teardown Confirms Huawei’s Pura 70 Contains SMIC 7nm Process Node, The Register, 4/29/24
Huawei Lab Barred by U.S. Regulators as Part of Crackdown on China, Bloomberg, 5/1/24
U.S. Justifies Huawei’s Intel-Powered AI Laptops, Saying Chip Bans Aren’t Meant to Hobble China’s Growth, Tom’s Hardware, 4/29/24