Huawei’s ranking in the global top 500 enterprises has improved this year to position 44 up from position 49 in the year 2020.

Huawei entered the list for the first time in 2010 at position 397, and by last year leapt from position 72 to 49 and in the process broke into the top 50 for the first time.

The Fortune Global 500 annual ranking measures the business revenue of the top businesses across industries.

The privately employee-owned firm raked in revenues totalling more than one-third of the world's GDP and employs 69.7 million people globally, even as its total revenue shrank in the past year.

After reaching a record high of $33.3 trillion in the 2020 edition, total revenue for the world’s biggest 500 firms fell 4.8 per cent to $31.7 trillion this year, the first decline in half a decade.

The Covid-19 pandemic ate into the global economy as countries were forced into lockdowns, which, however, proved a huge blessing for tech firms which continued to flourish.

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During the recent announcement of Huawei’s first-half results for 2021, during which its net margin increased from 9.2 per cent to 9.8 per cent compared to the same period last year.

“We've set our strategic goals for the next five years. We are confident that our carrier and enterprise businesses will continue to grow steadily,” said Huawei's Rotating Chairman Eric Xu.

Huawei has benefitted from its diverse businesses across the globe, in telecommunications, IT and energy, and from more businesses digitizing across many different industries globally.

It also benefitted from its large patent portfolio with Jason Ding, head of Huawei's intellectual property department, saying Huawei expected to rake in $1.2-1.3 billion in patent and licensing fees between 2019 and 2021.

The tech giant has one of the largest patent portfolios in the world and invested more than 15 per cent of its sales revenue into R&D last year in technologies such as 5G and Cloud.