Huawei could be worth more than Apple as it considers going public in 2024

Huawei could be worth more than Apple as it considers going public in 2024،

Still, given that Huawei is able to escape every time the U.S. tries to pin it down and the company is optimistic about its ability to regain lost ground in the smartphone industry, Reuters reports that there have been discussions about Huawei's IPO. Ren Zhengfei, the founder of Huawei, has always rejected the possibility of Huawei shares being traded on stock exchanges.

However, if it is in China's national interest for Huawei to raise money by selling shares, Zhengfei would agree to an IPO of the manufacturer. In a letter to Huawei staff written by Ren in 2021, he wrote that Huawei may “gradually enter the market in the future.” Former Huawei sub-brand Honor, which Huawei sold in 2020 to a consortium for $15 billion, outlined plans to go public last month.

Huawei Mate 60 Pro success could lead to Huawei going public - Huawei could be worth more than Apple as it plans to go public in 2024

The success of the Huawei Mate 60 Pro could lead Huawei to IPO

So, how much could Huawei be worth? Based on a profit of $5.1 billion in 2022 and applying the same current earnings multiple as Apple (25x), Huawei could be valued at “only” $128 billion. But former Lenovo chief technology officer Ni Guangnan said in 2019 that Huawei could be worth as much as $1.3 trillion. At that time, Apple's market capitalization had just surpassed $1 trillion, meaning Guangnan viewed Huawei as more valuable than Apple. Today, Apple is valued on the stock market at $3,000 billion.

Chinese investors have already shown they like hot tech stocks, especially if it's a company associated with the country. In 2019, China's largest foundry, SMIC, was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange with a valuation of less than $6 billion. After its IPO in Shanghai, the company now has a market capitalization close to $30 billion. And if Huawei goes public, international fund managers will all want a piece of the action.

A Huawei IPO would certainly be cause for celebration in China, as such a listing could be seen as another sign that US sanctions against Huawei have been a failure. China has three stock exchanges: the Shanghai Stock Exchange, the Beijing Stock Exchange and the Shenzhen Stock Exchange.