Qualcomm will pay Huawei for patent licences for the first time

[RapidCrossing]

Qualcomm will pay Huawei for patent rights under a multi-year cross licensing agreement covering 5G, AI, computing, networking and "other technologies," Tom's Hardware reports. It is the first time Qualcomm has paid Huawei for patent licences. That reverses a relationship that began in 2001, when Huawei took a royalty bearing licence from Qualcomm to build CDMA network equipment. Neither the number of patents nor the value of the deal was disclosed

Qualcomm will also buy some of Huawei's US patents outright, pending regulatory approval. The companies describe it as a broad patent licence agreement with cross licences, based on fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory principles. Huawei stopped paying royalties to Qualcomm in 2018, and Qualcomm stopped counting Huawei royalties in its revenue in early 2025

Huawei says its total patent licensing contract value will exceed 6.9 billion dollars. It says its licensing income has exceeded what it pays others since 2021, and that it held 165,000 active granted patents worldwide as of 2025. Tom's Hardware concludes: "Huawei can now take some satisfaction in leveling the playing field with Qualcomm."

The deal shows how much the balance of technology has shifted over two decades. Huawei went from licensing technology from Western firms to becoming one of the world's largest patent holders, particularly in 5G. Despite years of restrictions in some markets, its research output has kept growing. For Qualcomm, paying a rival it once collected from must feel like a big change

Does this show that patent power in mobile technology has shifted towards China? And do cross licensing deals like this help or hurt consumers?

Qualcomm will pay Huawei to license its patents for the first time in historic turnaround, report says - reversal in a 5G and AI cross-licensing deal comes 25 years after Huawei first paid Qualcommwww.tomshardware.com

[Brandon80]

It shows how much Huawei has invested in research. A hundred and sixty five thousand patents is enormous. Whatever people think about the company, its engineers have been prolific

Their research budget is one of the largest of any company in the world. Patents follow spending