16:12Machine-translated from Azerbaijani by AIRead in Azerbaijani
Qualcomm to Pay Huawei Patent Royalties, Acquire Some of Its US Patents
Qualcomm and Huawei have agreed to a multi-year cross-licensing deal covering patents for 5G, artificial intelligence (AI), computing and networking technologies. Under the agreement, Qualcomm will pay for Huawei patents for the first time. The company will also acquire full ownership of some of Huawei’s US patents. The acquisition will be completed after receiving regulatory approval.
The move is considered a historic turning point in the parties’ 25-year licensing relationship. The partnership began in 2001, when Huawei obtained a paid license to Qualcomm patents to develop CDMA mobile network equipment. Under the new deal, the patents will be licensed on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory terms. The agreement does not include chip sales or other commercial cooperation.
The US patents Qualcomm will acquire relate to artificial intelligence, computing, networking and other technologies. The number of patents, the purchase price and when the process will be completed have not been disclosed. According to Huawei, following this deal, the total value of patent licensing agreements signed since 2011 will exceed $6.9 billion (approximately 11.73 billion manats). Since 2021, the company has earned more from patent licensing than it has paid out.
According to 2025 data, Huawei has 165,000 active and granted patents worldwide. In August, the company also signed a multi-year cross-licensing agreement with HP covering Wi-Fi patents. Huawei, which defends its patent rights in court, filed a lawsuit against MediaTek in 2024. Patent licensing has already become one of the company’s main sources of revenue.
The parties have also had serious patent-related disagreements in recent years. Huawei stopped making licensing payments to Qualcomm in 2018. The dispute over the accumulated debt was resolved in 2020. In 2024, the US revoked the authorization that allowed Qualcomm to sell certain equipment to Huawei. Huawei’s previous patent license expired in early 2025.
Qualcomm stopped including patent payments received from Huawei in its revenue in early 2025. Under the new deal, each company formally recognizes the other’s patent portfolio, but chip supplies will not resume. It has not yet been disclosed when the patent acquisition will be completed. The agreement will not be included in Qualcomm’s next quarterly report because the company’s fiscal year ended before the deal was announced.