Huawei and Qualcomm have announced a multi-year patent licence agreement, marking the first licence between the two companies to cover 5G technologies and reflecting their shared commitment to intellectual property rights.
The broad patent licence agreement includes cross licences to the companies’ patent portfolios across a range of technology fields, including 5G, compute, AI and networking, together with Qualcomm’s purchase of certain Huawei US patents in compute, AI, networking and other technologies.
This transaction will close following receipt of the necessary regulatory approvals. The agreement highlights the companies’ joint commitment to licensing practices consistent with fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) principles.
Huawei’s Chief Intellectual Property Officer, Alan Fan, commented on the agreement: “Huawei’s decades of sustained investment in fundamental R&D have driven innovation and progress in mobile communications and other technology fields. Huawei’s broad contributions to the 4G/5G standards, such as the near-physical-limit signal transmission technology using polar codes, have established Huawei’s leadership in the mobile communications industry and continuously transformed the way people communicate and live. This agreement not only demonstrates the value of Huawei’s innovations but also recognises Qualcomm’s foundational contributions to modern communication technologies.”
John Han, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Qualcomm Technology Licensing, added: “Qualcomm has invested in foundational wireless technologies that have enabled successive generations of mobile innovation and earned broad recognition across the global wireless industry. This agreement reaffirms industry recognition of Qualcomm’s 5G technology leadership and the success of Qualcomm’s 5G SEP licensing programme. This agreement likewise reflects Qualcomm’s recognition of Huawei’s continued innovation and intellectual property in 5G and other technology fields.”
The deal marks a notable shift in the relationship between the two companies – Huawei’s first ever IP licence payment was to Qualcomm in 2001. Since 2021, Huawei’s licensing revenue has been positive, and by the end of 2025 the company held more than 165,000 active granted patents worldwide.
