Huawei R&D Spending Tops Samsung by 5 Trillion Won

Despite U.S. export curbs, Huawei spends 42.4 trillion won on AI and chip R&D last year.

The logo of Huawei (Reuters)

Huawei was found to have poured an amount of funds into AI and semiconductor research and development (R&D) last year, which surpassed those of Samsung Electronics. Despite intense pressure from U.S. export regulations, the company spent over 100 billion won (approximately $66 million) per day on technology development.

According to the information and communication technology (ICT) industry on April 9, the funds Huawei invested in R&D last year totaled 192.3 billion yuan, equivalent to approximately 42.4 trillion won. This amount is about 5 trillion won more than Samsung Electronics’ R&D expenditure of 37.7 trillion won for the same year, and it translates to a daily average of 113.6 billion won. Although Samsung Electronics was slightly ahead of Huawei in 2024 by actively expanding its investments in AI semiconductors such as HBM, the R&D investment gap between the two companies widened further as Huawei increased its investment scale again last year.

The scale of Huawei’s R&D workforce is also remarkable. As of the end of last year, its dedicated R&D personnel numbered 114,000, nearly matching Samsung Electronics’ total employee count of 120,000. In effect, the company operates an organization where its research personnel alone are equivalent to the entire workforce of its competitor.

Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s Rotating Chairwoman, made clear her intention to continue large-scale R&D investments at an earnings presentation in March. Meng stated, “We must grow together with the pioneers of our time even if it requires sacrifices,” emphasizing further the direction of expanding technology investment. She added, “We will become a silicon-based fertile ground that helps all industries transition to AI.”

Based on these large-scale investments, Huawei is also accelerating its push into the Korean market. The plan is to offer a new option to domestic companies in the AI infrastructure market led by Nvidia.

Balian Wang, CEO of Huawei Korea, stated at a press conference held in December last year, “We will provide solutions in the form of a cluster that combines storage and networking, not just with a single chip product.” He added, “It has an advantage in terms of performance optimization over competitors’ approach of selling single servers.”

The catch-up from the Chinese semiconductor equipment industry has also become evident. At ‘SEMICON China 2026’ held in Shanghai at the end of March, Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment (SMEE) unveiled its independently developed lithography equipment and announced, “We have recorded double-digit annual sales growth and have now entered the mass production stage.”