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text | bingxue

recently, a speech by sun ninghui, an academician of the chinese academy of engineering, attracted a lot of attention because he publicly accused huawei of being closed and engaging in technology monopoly, not giving competitors a way out, and maximizing business interests.

as soon as academician sun's views came out, they quickly caused an uproar in the public opinion field. because huawei, the target of his remarks, is undoubtedly a leader in china's technology field. even if it faces rounds of sanctions and suppression by the united states, it still shows strong competitive strength. from the chip "spare tire" that became official overnight to the pure-blood hongmeng system that challenged powerful enemies, public opinion was boiling.

i believe that every company with a dream will aspire to build a strong competitive moat. the function of this moat is to prevent opponents from crossing over and entering their own "ruling zone". only in this way can we have what others don't have and what others have, we will be strong. sufficient business returns, thereby promoting the enterprise to achieve greater development.

huawei is a chinese company with an undisputed wide moat, which comes from its long-term and huge investment in technology. data shows that huawei's r&d investment in 2023 will be as high as 164.7 billion, accounting for 23.4% of annual sales revenue. the cumulative r&d expenses invested in the past ten years have exceeded 1.11 trillion. in the global ict field, especially in 5g, it may be very difficult for any company to bypass huawei's technology and patents.

so, is huawei engaged in a "monopoly"?

last year, huawei and xiaomi went to court several times over patent litigation. at that time, many people thought that there was going to be a patent war between the two parties. unexpectedly, the two parties quickly shook hands and made peace. huawei and xiaomi announced a global patent cross-licensing agreement covering communications technologies including 5g.

why? because this is in line with business logic. on the other hand, can huawei really attack and squeeze out competitors by engaging in "enclosure and self-cuteness"? can business success be achieved through so-called "monopoly"? i'm afraid not.

all high-tech enterprises must "stand on the shoulders of giants" for independent innovation. enterprises share high-value patented technologies with each other and pay patent fees to each other, which can not only promote the transformation and application of technology, but also stimulate innovation. historically, huawei used technology from western companies and paid a lot of patent fees. now huawei has also begun to collect some patent fees. of course, huawei wants to protect the scientific and technological achievements it has invested heavily in, but its ultimate goal is to promote its own development and drive industry progress. after all, "one flower blooming alone is not spring, but a hundred flowers blooming together will fill the garden."

photo by xiao yi, chief photographer of china economic weekly |

in fact, in terms of patent conversion, huawei can be regarded as one of the most representative chinese companies that have "tasted the sweetness". this is not only because huawei is the company that has obtained the most authorized patents in china so far, but also deserves attention. the patent revenue obtained has been able to cover and exceed its patent costs. the relevant person in charge of huawei revealed that as of the end of 2023, huawei held more than 140,000 valid authorized patents around the world, and the cumulative number of public patents had exceeded 336,000.

however, compared with global communications industry giants such as qualcomm, ericsson, and nokia, huawei still lags far behind. data shows that in fiscal year 2023, qualcomm's technology licensing business qtl licensing revenue was us$5.306 billion, accounting for 14.8% of qualcomm's revenue, and pre-tax profit (ebt) reached us$3.628 billion, accounting for 48.7% of total profits. the operating profit brought by nokia's intellectual property-related business was 734 million euros, accounting for 43.4% of the total operating profit.

it can be seen that china's huawei "wins" by patents is not too many, but too few.

some netizens discovered that the academician who accused huawei mainly researched in high-performance computers and computer system architecture, and had participated in the development of the sugon series of high-performance computers. the institute of computing technology of the chinese academy of sciences, where he works, is related to a listed company, which may have commercial competition with huawei in specific business areas.

it’s hard to speculate on academician sun’s motives, but no matter what the reason is, we still hope that the disputes in the technology circle will focus more on science and less on profits, and the competition between enterprises will be more mutually beneficial like xiaomi and huawei. , and jointly contribute positive energy to industrial development.

editor | yao kun