Huawei’s Q1 revenue jump 39% to ¥179.7 billion amid increased conflict with the US

Huawei Technologies on Monday said its first quarter revenue spiked 39% to ¥179.7 billion, while net profit margin rose to about 8% for the quarter, which was a slight increase compared to a year ago.

The actual net profit was not disclosed by the privately-owned Shenzhen-based firm.

As of the end of March this year, Huawei said it had signed 40 commercial 5G contracts with carriers and have shipped more than 70,000 5G base stations to markets around the world. The world’s biggest telecoms equipment maker said it expects to have shipped 100,000 base stations by May.

The firm, which is also the world’s number three smartphone maker, said it had shipped 59 million smartphones in the first quarter. According to Strategy Analytics, Huawei shipped 39.3 million smartphones in the first quarter of last year.

US versus Huawei

The announcement from Huawei comes as United States’ (US) intelligence unit accuses the firm of being funded by Chinese state security, The Times said in a report on Saturday. Citing a source, the paper said the US Central Intelligence Agency accused Huawei of receiving funding from China’s National Security Commission, the People’s Liberation Army and a third branch of the Chinese state intelligence network.

Huawei has denied the allegations in a statement, with a representative telling the paper the firm ‘does not comment on unsubstantiated allegations backed up by zero evidence from anonymous sources’.

The US has been claiming that equipment from Chinese firms such as Huawei could be used for espionage by the Chinese government, urging US allies to ban it from building next-generation 5G mobile networks.

Another Reuters article last week reported that the US will push its allies at a meeting in Prague next month to adopt shared security and policy measures that will make it more difficult for Huawei to dominate 5G telecommunications networks.

In addition, the US Justice Department is also probing Huawei on alleged sanction violations.

In December last year, Ms Meng Wanzhou, the tech company’s chief financial officer and daughter of its founder, Ren Zhengfei, was arrested in Canada on the request of the US on charges of fraud in violation of US sanctions against Iran.

Mr Ren has come forth to state that the arrest of Ms Meng was ‘politically motivated’.

Last month, Huawei filed a lawsuit to sue the US government over a law that bans government agencies from purchasing its equipment.