Qualcomm and Huawei have signed a multi-year patent cross-license agreement in the areas of 5G, processing, artificial intelligence and networking.
According to ITNA quoting TechSpot, Huawei announced that this is the first agreement between the two companies that also covers the 5G domain. As part of this deal, Qualcomm intends to purchase a number of Huawei's patents in the United States in the fields of processing, artificial intelligence and networking.
Financial details and the exact duration of the contract have not yet been announced. It is also unclear exactly which patents are included in this transaction. In their joint statement, both companies emphasized mutual licensing of their patent portfolios and a commitment to fair licensing.
The agreement is historically noteworthy as well. Huawei made its first payment to Qualcomm for patent licensing in 2001, when the Chinese company was mostly known as a telecommunications equipment manufacturer. Now, 25 years later, Huawei is selling part of its patents to Qualcomm and has stated that the total value of its patent licensing agreements has reached about $7 billion.
Qualcomm views this agreement as evidence of the success of its standard-essential patent licensing program in the 5G domain. In contrast, Huawei emphasized its achievements in 4G and 5G standards and specifically mentioned polar codes, the error-correcting technology used in 5G control channels. Huawei also stated that its intellectual property licensing business has been profitable since 2021 and that the company will have more than 165,000 active granted patents by the end of 2025.
Some reports have claimed that Qualcomm will pay Huawei to use its patents in the 5G domain and also the LogicFolding chip fabrication technology. However, these claims were not confirmed in the companies' official statement, and an industry analyst has expressed skepticism about some of these reports.
LogicFolding is one of the important technologies Huawei introduced this year. The technology stacks chip logic in two layers and, by connecting them via hybrid bonding, shortens long signal transmission paths. Huawei claims this method increased transistor density of the first Kirin chip based on this technology by about 55 percent.
However, the new agreement will face strict oversight due to Huawei's legal and political status in the United States. Huawei has been on the U.S. Entity List since 2019, and the new deal must undergo regulatory review and approval. Therefore, what is certain for now is the mutual licensing agreement, Qualcomm's purchase of an unspecified set of Huawei patents, and the unspecified financial value of the transaction.