Huawei and Qualcomm have signed a multi-year patent deal, and this time Qualcomm is the one buying. According to an announcement from Huawei on October 5th, the deal covers cross-licenses, where each company gets to use the other’s patents, across 5G, computing, AI, and networking. On top of that, Qualcomm will buy “certain Huawei U.S. patents” in computing, AI, networking and other technologies.
Huawei said it’s the first licensing deal between the two to cover 5G, and that it pushes the total value of all its patent licensing agreements past $6.9 billion. Neither company disclosed what this deal is worth on its own, or how long “multi-year” is.
In case you’re not familiar, back in 2020, Huawei settled a royalty fight with Qualcomm, and Qualcomm booked about $1.8 billion (almost Php 113 billion) from Huawei in back payments. Then the US cut Huawei off. It has been on the US Entity List, the Commerce Department’s trade blacklist, since May 2019. On May 7th, 2024, Commerce revoked Qualcomm’s license to sell Huawei 4G chips, according to Qualcomm’s own quarterly filing. That filing also shows the 2020 license expired, and Qualcomm booked no Huawei royalties from early 2025.
But Huawei didn’t sit still. It spent CNY192.3 billion (about $27 billion) on R&D in 2025, or 21.8% of its revenue, per its annual report. It also said it holds more than 30,000 granted US patents – maybe more at this time. Now that is the shelf Qualcomm is shopping from.
The deal also isn’t finished yet. It closes only after “the necessary regulatory approvals,” and neither company has named the regulators. TechWire Asia reported that it needs US antitrust clearance under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act to get over the line. A US chipmaker buying patents from a company on a US trade blacklist is paperwork one can expect Washington to read closely.
The take
So far, Qualcomm denies it, and nobody has published a number. The smaller fact is the bigger story here. Six years ago, Huawei was the one paying Qualcomm to use its patents. Now Qualcomm wants to own some of Huawei’s patents outright. If the deal ever finalizes, maybe we’ll find out what’s what in the future.
