China's Huawei says it earned patent revenues of $560 million last year

Huawei has entered into patent licenses with phone makers Samsung and Oppo and automakers including Audi, Mercedes Benz, BMW etc.

Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies received $560 million in royalty revenues in 2022, Alan Fan, its head of intellectual property (IP), said on Thursday in a speech at company headquarters in the city of Shenzhen.

Huawei earned more than it paid out in royalties over the last two years as the decline in handset sales meant it needed to pay less to other IP holders, Fan said.

The company has entered into patent licenses with phone makers Samsung and Oppo and automakers including Audi, Mercedes Benz, BMW, Porsche, Subaru, Lamborghini and Bentley, Huawei said.

Last year, Huawei spent $23 billion on research and development, with 114,000 staff, 55% of its total, working on research, the company said.

From 2019, rounds of U.S restrictions after authorities there called the company a security risk reduced its access to chipmaking tools. Huawei denies being a security risk.