Huawei Technologies Co will issue 3 billion yuan (US$470 million) of short-term debt next week, a month after it sold 3 billion yuan in China’s interbank market, in a sign that the Shenzhen-based telecoms giant is accelerating the use of debt financing in its operations. According to a filing at the Shanghai Clearing House, Huawei plans to issue 180-day notes next Monday, which will increase the company’s total debt financing in 2022 to 17 billion yuan from 11 billion yuan last year and 9 billion yuan in 2020. The proceeds will support business development and “implementation of critical strategies”, the company said. The funds will also be used to replenish the working capital of Huawei and its subsidiaries. Huawei is not a listed company, but according to its financial results it was sitting on nearly 200 billion yuan of cash as of last September. While revenue dropped 29 per cent in 2021, its profit increased 76 per cent to 113.7 billion yuan (US$17.8 billion) last year thanks to one-off returns from selling business units. Huawei’s notes and bonds, which are not guaranteed, have proved popular among Chinese banks, reflecting creditor confidence in the company in spite of US sanctions. In fact, Huawei’s first bond issuance at home took place in September 2019, a few months after it was added to the so-called “entity list” that bans it from buying parts and components from US companies. As Huawei is now reinventing itself , morphing from a hardware-centric model to a combination of hardware, software, and services, its appetite for money has also grown to support the transformation, an analyst said. “Huawei is now exploring business opportunities beyond the traditional telecom operator market, such as public cloud, industrial digitalisation and green energy solutions,” said Yang Guang, a Beijing-based analyst at tech consultancy Strategy Analytics. “All these activities require continuous investments.” One of the most expensive projects, according to the company’s filing, is the 10 billion yuan research and development (R&D) centre in Shanghai’s Qingpu district. The R&D centre will be focusing on chips for different devices, which also answers Beijing’s call for developing semiconductor technologies and tech self-sufficiency . In December last year, the company established four new business lines , aiming to help with China’s digital transformation and reduce energy consumption .