China's Huawei Technologies has struck a broad, multiyear patent license agreement with Qualcomm that includes cross-licenses to the companies' patents across 5G, compute, artificial intelligence and networking technologies.
Qualcomm will also purchase some Huawei U.S. patents in the areas of compute, AI, networking, and other technologies, the companies said Monday.
The deal marks Huawei's first patent-licensing agreement with Qualcomm covering 5G technology, according to the Chinese company. It is also the first agreement under which Huawei licenses and assigns patents in compute, AI and networking technologies to the U.S. chip designer, it said.
The deal comes weeks after Huawei reached a cross-licensing agreement with HP covering patents used in Wi-Fi technology, and shows that the Chinese company remains a top patent holder in the information and communications technology field despite years of U.S. sanctions that limited its access to advanced semiconductors.
Huawei and Qualcomm didn't disclose financial terms of the transaction, which will close once regulatory approvals are received. Huawei said its expected contract value from patent licensing agreements so far has exceeded $6.9 billion following the deal's signing.
Huawei and Qualcomm have entered multiple agreements over the years, with the first one signed more than two decades ago. Huawei's first intellectual-property licensing payment was to Qualcomm in 2001, and its first IP licensing revenue was from Motorola in 2011.