The Huawei booth at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, 2025.
Arjun Kharpal | CNBC
Huawei on Monday reported a sharp jump in 2024 revenue as its core telecommunications and consumer businesses accelerated.
Huawei reported revenue for 2024 of 862.1 billion Chinese yuan ($118.2 billion), a 22.4% year-on-year rise.
It is the company’s second-highest revenue figure ever, according to CNBC calculations, just shy of the record 891.4 billion yuan reported for 2020.
Net profit fell, however, to 62.6 billion yuan, a decline of 28% versus 2023. Huawei said this was a result of increasing investments.
It comes as the Chinese technology giant tries to adapt its business to deal with U.S. sanctions that have restricted its access to key technologies like semiconductors.
“In 2024, the entire team at Huawei banded together to tackle a wide range of external challenges, while further improving product quality, operations quality, and operational efficiency,” Huawei’s rotating chairwoman Meng Wanzhou said in the company’s annual report.
Huawei spent 179.7 billion yuan on research and development, equating to 20.8% of its revenue. That’s higher than 2023’s 164.7 billion R&D figure. Huawei has been diversifying its business in areas including data centers for AI, cloud computing and automotive technology.
“Over the next three years, despite an economic downturn, we will increase investment in strategic depth, particularly in building foundational technologies, and seek growth opportunities through differentiation,” Meng said.
Huawei’s sales last year were driven by its two biggest businesses — ICT infrastructure and consumer — which together account for around 82% of the company’s total revenue.
Revenue at the ICT infrastructure division, which includes its carrier business, rose 4.9% year-on-year to 369.9 billion yuan. This is the Shenzhen headquartered-firm’s biggest business by revenue. Huawei is one of the world’s largest telecommunications equipment companies and the company said large-scale deployment of next-generation 5G networks had helped drive growth.
The company also said that 2024 was the first year of commercial deployment of next-generation networks, dubbed 5.5G or 5G advanced, which also helped give sales a boost.
China smartphone revival
An acceleration in Huawei’s consumer business also aided its revenue figures. The consumer business raked in sales of 339 billion yuan, a 38.3% rise and a sharp acceleration from the growth seen last year.
From the end of 2023, however, a semiconductor breakthrough in China allowed Huawei to regroup and release high-end phones that have sold very well domestically.
In 2024, Huawei’s smartphone shipments in China jumped 37% year-on-year, while its market share rose to 16% from 12% in 2023, according to data from Canalys. This came at the expense of Apple, which saw its market share decline and shipments fall.
Meanwhile, Huawei also released HarmonyOS 5 in 2024, the first version of its self-developed mobile operating system that reportedly no longer uses any open-source code from Google Android.
Still, analysts have told CNBC that Huawei’s overseas prospects remain a challenge given its lack of access to Android, which runs on the majority of the world’s smartphones, and continued restrictions in accessing the most cutting-edge chips, such as those found in Apple and Samsung devices.
New business focus
To mitigate some of the effects of U.S. sanctions over the past few years, Huawei has been pushing into new areas such as its digital power division, which includes a focus on energy infrastructure in areas such as electric cars and renewables.
This segment — still a very new business — saw revenue rise 24.4% to 68.7 billion yuan.
Cloud computing revenue came in at 38.5 billion yuan, up 8.5% year-on-year. Huawei said that when cloud sales to its own business units are taken into account, the total revenue for the division is 68.8 billion.
Huawei’s smallest business, called Intelligent Automotive Solution, reported a 474.4% year-on-year rise in revenue to 26.4 billion yuan. Huawei develops in-car software as well as driver assistance systems for third-party automakers.
Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal and chief executive officer of financial technology company Affirm, arrives at the Sun Valley Resort for the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, in Sun Valley, Idaho.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
Affirm shares rose 15% in extended trading on Thursday after the provider of buy now, pay later loans reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue for the fiscal fourth quarter.
Here’s how the company did versus LSEG consensus estimates:
EPS: 20 cents vs. 11 cents estimated
Revenue: $876 million vs. $837 million estimated
Revenue climbed 33% in the period from $659 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Gross merchandise volume rose 43% to $10.4 billion from $7.2 billion a year ago.
Affirm reported net income of $69.2 million, or 20 cents a share, after recording a loss a year earlier of $45.1 million, or 14 cents a share.
“This consistent execution led Affirm to achieve operating income profitability in FQ4’25 – right on the schedule we committed to a year ago,” the company said in its shareholder letter.
For the first quarter, Affirm said revenue will be between $855 million and $885 million, while gross merchandise volume will be $10.1 billion to 10.4 billion.
Shares of Affirm were up 31% this year before the after-hours pop, topping the Nasdaq’s 12% gain.
Affirm, which went public in 2021, faces growing competition in e-commerce. It has partnerships with Amazon and Shopify, but Walmart recently shifted to competitor Klarna, which is expected to go public in the near future. Last year, Affirm announced a deal with Apple.
Elon Musk reacts during a press event with U.S. President Donald Trump (not pictured), at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 30, 2025.
Nathan Howard | Reuters
Elon Musk’s fervent promotion of Tesla‘s self-driving technology isn’t doing much to win over prospective buyers.
According to a new survey, more U.S. consumers say that Tesla’s FSD, or Full Self-Driving (Supervised) systems, would push them away from the brand rather than drawing them to it.
The Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report for August, published by political consulting firm Slingshot Strategies, polled 8,000 Americans. Only 14% of those surveyed said FSD would make them more likely to buy a Tesla, while 35% said the technology would make them less likely to purchase one.
The remaining 51% said the availability of FSD would make no difference to them in terms of their car buying decisions. Nearly half of consumers surveyed by Slingshot said they think FSD technology should be illegal.
For Tesla, the troubling results land in the middle of a sales slump resulting from an aging lineup of electric vehicles and increased competition from rivals. There’s also reputational damage in response to Musk, his incendiary political rhetoric, work with the Trump administration and support of Germany’s far-right AfD party.
Sales of Tesla cars in Europe plunged 40% in July from a year earlier, the seventh consecutive month of declines.
In the robotaxi market, Tesla is lagging Alphabet-owned Waymo, and Baidu’s Apollo Go. It’s now in the early stages of testing aride-hailing service in Austin, Texas, and in the San Francisco Bay Area, with hopes to reach more cities this year. Cars in Austin have human supervisors on board, while those in San Francisco have drivers at the wheel.
Musk, the world’s richest person, has said the future of Tesla hangs on its ability to deliver autonomous vehicles and related services. He recently said a new variant of the Model Y, which launched in China, won’t “start production in the U.S. until the end of next year,” and “might not ever, given the advent of self-driving in America.”
For now, Tesla still relies on EV sales for the vast majority of its revenue, though Musk has touted FSD as one of the company’s big advantages over competitors.
Last month, executives suggested that Tesla has a market education problem when it comes to driving adoption of FSD.
“The vast majority of people don’t know it exists,” Musk said on the company’s second-quarter earnings call. “And it’s still like half of Tesla owners who could use it, haven’t tried it even once.”
Musk said he would start telling customers about FSD when they bring their cars in for service, and would begin reaching out to drivers, sending them videos of how it works.
Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja said on the July earnings call that people who subscribe to the premium FSD option get something like a “personal chauffeur” for about $3.33 a day.
The version of FSD Supervised that Tesla sells today is available to owners for $99 per month or an up-front purchase. The system gives users a limited set of self-driving capabilities on residential and city streets.
On Thursday, Tesla sent out a promotion offering 0% APR financing for customers ordering a new Model 3 by Sept. 1, as long as they add FSD Supervised to their order, or transfer it from their previously owned Tesla.
‘Holding AV manufacturers responsible’
Musk has said in posts on X that FSD can “can operate in all conditions,” will “save lives” and will be a “life-changing product” for many people. He’s also shared user-generated videos showing Tesla owners using FSD without their hands on the wheel.
However, in owners manuals, Tesla lists many conditions in which FSD Supervised may not be reliable, and warns users to keep their hands on the steering wheel at all times, and be ready to take over steering or braking.
Among the subset of survey respondents actively looking to buy a fully electric vehicle, only 20% said they were more likely to buy a Tesla because of FSD, while 33% said they were less likely. Evan Roth Smith, Slingshot’s head of research, said a lack of clarity and honesty in the company’s marketing could be a factor.
Most consumers polled by the firm want clear and strong regulations in the U.S. governing autonomous vehicles, whether they’re fully or partially automated.
“There is strong support for holding AV manufacturers responsible for accidents and requiring stricter regulatory and advertising guardrails around features such as FSD,” the Slingshot report said.
Smith said the data shows that beyond its FSD woes, Tesla has “the worst reputation of any EV maker in the U.S.”
“The drop in the company’s brand reputation this year is remarkable,” he said, adding that recent product liability lawsuits and verdicts may be playing a role.
In early August, a jury found Tesla partially liable for a fatal crash where the driver was relying on its autopilot systems. Tesla, which plans to appeal the decision, must pay around $243 million in damages to victims and a survivor.
In the past two months, the number of consumers who view Tesla cars as unsafe has increased to 36% from 34%, the Slingshot report found, while those viewing Tesla as very safe fell to 13% from 17%.
Honda, Toyota and Chevrolet were seen as safest among the greatest number of respondents.
Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment.Slingshot said it sent the survey results to the company but also didn’t hear back from the automaker.
Tesla may find that owners in other markets embrace its brand, and FSD, with greater enthusiasm. The company just started offering FSD Supervised in Australia this week.
Read Slingshot’s full Electric Vehicle Intelligence Report for August 2025 here.
A Dell Technologies sign is seen in Round Rock, Texas, on June 2, 2023.
Brandon Bell | Getty Images
Despite beating on its top and bottom lines, shares of Dell Technologies fell more than 5% Thursday in extended trading after giving third-quarter earnings per share guidance that below Wall Street’s expectations.
Here’s how the systems integrator did versus LSEG consensus estimates:
EPS: $2.32, adjusted vs. $2.30 estimated
Revenue: $29.78 billion vs. $29.17 billion estimated
Dell raised its full year outlook for revenue to be $107 billion at its midpoint and diluted earnings per share to $9.55 at the midpoint, topping Wall Street estimates of $104.6 billion and $9.38 per share.
However, Dell’s guidance for third-quarter earnings per share of $2.45 came in short versus LSEG’s mark of $2.55, despite Dell’s guide for $27 billion in third-quarter revenue topping estimates of $26.1 billion.
Dell said that part of the reason its profit forecast is concentrated in the fourth quarter is due to seasonality, particularly in its storage business.
For the second quarter, overall revenue rose 19% on an annual basis. That was driven by the company’s Servers and Networking revenue, including AI servers, which came in at $12.9 billion, which was up 69% on an annual basis.
Dell is one of Nvidia’s key customers. Dell buys chips from the AI leader and builds computers around them, which it sells to end-users such as CoreWeave, a cloud service. Dell said it shipped $10 billion in AI servers in its past two quarters.
Dell said that it now plans to ship $20 billion of artificial intelligence servers in its fiscal 2026, double what it sold last year.
However, the company’s storage revenue declined 3% to $3.86 billion and missed a StreetAccount estimate of $4.1 billion in sales.
Revenue in the company’s client solutions group, which includes PC sales to enterprises, rose 1% on an annual basis to $12.5 billion. While it used to be Dell’s largest business group, in recent quarters it has grown much slowly than the company’s data center business.
Dell said it spent $1.3 billion on share repurchases and dividends during the quarter.