Qualcomm has rejected reports linking its new patent agreement with Huawei to the Chinese company’s LogicFold chip technology, and denied that it is the net payer under the licensing deal. The clarification follows the companies’ October 5 announcement of a broad, multi-year cross-license covering AI, computing, networking and 5G.
The agreement gives each company licenses to the other’s patent portfolio across those fields. Qualcomm has also agreed to buy certain Huawei patents registered in the United States, including patents covering computing, AI and networking. The transaction remains subject to the necessary regulatory approvals.
A Qualcomm spokesperson told Seeking Alpha by email that the terms are confidential and that reports describing Qualcomm as the net payer are incorrect. The spokesperson also said assertions connecting the agreement to LogicFold are inaccurate, while confirming the separate purchase of non-cellular US patents.
The companies have confirmed a broad exchange of patent rights and a patent purchase; they have not announced a Qualcomm product using Huawei’s LogicFold technology. The public announcement does not identify the individual patents being acquired.
Huawei said the transaction would bring the cumulative value of its patent licensing agreements above $6.9 billion once completed. That figure refers to its licensing agreements collectively, rather than the price of the Qualcomm transaction. Neither the joint announcement nor Qualcomm’s clarification provides a value for the new deal.
Huawei’s intellectual-property licensing business has generated positive revenue since 2021, the company said. It has increased research spending as US trade restrictions imposed since 2019 have limited access to advanced chips and software. Patent licensing provides a way to commercialize research across companies without selling the underlying hardware.
The two companies have a long licensing history. In 2020, Huawei agreed to pay Qualcomm $1.8 billion in back licensing fees to settle a patent dispute. The newly announced cross-license extends across several technology fields, including AI and computing, alongside cellular communications.
Both companies continue to develop AI hardware businesses. Qualcomm has separately agreed to design custom inference chips for ByteDance, whose proposed processors were designed to remain below US export-control thresholds. That commercial project is distinct from the Huawei patent agreement.
Huawei’s Ascend processors are also gaining software support from DeepSeek, which recently released tools for matrix operations and communications between processors. Those releases concern the software needed to run AI workloads on Huawei hardware, rather than a license to Qualcomm.
The joint announcement says the companies intend to follow fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory licensing principles. Qualcomm licensing chief John Han said the agreement recognizes both companies’ contributions to 5G and other technologies.
Sources: Qualcomm, Reuters, Seeking Alpha
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By the Control Plane Editorial Team