Huawei and Qualcomm Sign Patent Deal Spanning 5G and AI
3 min readHuawei and Qualcomm announced a multi-year patent license agreement on October 5 that spans 5G, compute, AI and networking, a rare moment of cooperation between a sanctioned Chinese technology giant and one of America’s most important chip companies. The Huawei Qualcomm patent deal combines cross licenses to both companies’ portfolios with Qualcomm’s purchase of a set of Huawei’s US patents.
Background: From Courtroom to Cross License
The two companies have a long history. In July 2020 Qualcomm settled a licensing dispute with Huawei and signed a long-term global patent license, a deal that brought Qualcomm roughly $1.8 billion in back payments that year. Since then US export controls have cut Huawei off from most American chips and software, pushing it to build its own silicon, operating systems and AI stack.
Huawei has also become an aggressive patent licensor in its own right. In August 2026 it signed a multi-year cross license with HP covering WiFi patents, and it regularly points to its contributions to 4G and 5G standards, including polar code signal transmission, as evidence of its research depth.
What Happened in the Huawei Qualcomm Patent Deal
According to Unite.AI, the agreement has two parts. First, the companies grant each other cross licenses across a range of technology fields. Second, Qualcomm buys certain Huawei US patents in compute, AI, networking and other areas. Both sides said the terms follow fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory (FRAND) licensing principles, and the transaction will close once regulators sign off.
Alan Fan, Huawei’s chief intellectual property officer, said the deal demonstrates the value of Huawei’s innovations while recognizing Qualcomm’s foundational work in communications. John Han, who runs Qualcomm Technology Licensing, framed it as fresh industry recognition of Qualcomm’s 5G leadership and of Huawei’s continued innovation.
Why It Matters
Patents are one of the few channels where US and Chinese technology companies still do business openly. Export controls now bar Qualcomm from selling most of its chips to Huawei, yet both companies need each other’s standard-essential patents to ship 5G products anywhere in the world. Extending that relationship into AI and compute shows how much of Huawei’s recent research now sits in the areas that matter most for the next decade.
The patent sale is the more unusual piece. Qualcomm taking ownership of Huawei’s US filings in AI and networking gives the American company a stronger defensive position at home, while Huawei converts assets it struggles to monetize in the US into cash. Watch for the regulatory review in both Washington and Beijing, and for whether other US firms follow HP and Qualcomm to the licensing table.
For Huawei, the deal is another sign that its intellectual property is becoming as strategic as its hardware. For the wider industry, it is a reminder that the AI race still runs on shared standards.