BEIJING/SHENZHEN, March 31 (Reuters) - China's Huawei

Technologies said on Monday its profit fell by almost a

quarter in 2024 versus a year prior when income from the sale of

its Honor handset unit provided an earnings boost, while its

revenue grew at the fastest rate in five years.

Net profit tumbled 28% to 62.6 billion yuan ($8.63 billion),

which a company spokesperson attributed to heavy investment into

research and development - reaching 179.7 billion yuan or about

20% of revenue - and not receiving any income from unit sales.

Huawei sold its budget smartphone unit Honor to a Shenzhen

government consortium in 2020 after U.S. sanctions limited its

access to high-end chips and services from Alphabet's

Google, with payments boosting profit in subsequent years.

The Shenzhen-based firm reported 862.1 billion yuan in 2024

revenue, up 22.4% from 2023, with information and communication

technology infrastructure contributing most to the figure,

growing 4.9% to 369.9 billion yuan, Huawei said in a statement.

Last year was the third successive year of growth since

revenue tanked nearly a third in 2021 amid intensified U.S.

curbs on access to advanced chips due to security concerns. It

also came close to its 2020 peak of 891.3 billion yuan.

Revenue from Huawei's consumer segment - which includes

smartphones and other digital gadgets - rose 38% to 339 billion

yuan, the second-highest growth across its five major segments.

Huawei's intelligent automotive solutions unit - which helps

traditional automakers make smart cars - saw revenue jump by

more than 4.5 times to 26.4 billion yuan. It also eked out a

profit for the first time last year.

In a press release, Huawei's rotating chairwoman and chief

financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, the daughter of Huawei founder

Ren Zhengfei, said the results were in line with forecasts.

"In 2024, the entire team at Huawei banded together to

tackle a wide range of external challenges," Meng said, adding

that Huawei devices are back in the fast lane.

Huawei said it will continue to open up its platform

capabilities to ecosystem partners and provide developers with

tools and products in domains including its HarmonyOS, Kunpeng,

Ascend and cloud computing products.

Huawei has emerged as a centre for Chinese technological

innovation in chips and operating systems amid a Sino-U.S. tech

war, with its executives previously saying that U.S. action had

pushed the company into "survival mode".

The company has in past months struck a more confident tone,

with founder Ren Zhengfei telling Chinese President Xi Jinping

in May that concerns China had about a lack of home-grown chips

and operating systems had eased.

($1 = 7.2503 Chinese yuan renminbi)