Qualcomm will pay Huawei for 5G and AI patents for the first time, in a 25-year payment reversal

For 25 years, Huawei paid Qualcomm for mobile-chip patents. On 5 October 2026, that flow reversed: Qualcomm is now paying Huawei to license 5G and AI patents under a multi-year cross-license that still needs U.S. regulatory approval before closing (Nikkei).

The deal covers standard-essential patents in 5G, compute, AI, and networking. Huawei says the agreement will push the total value of its patent licensing past $6.9 billion (Huawei; SCMP).

Both companies call the terms consistent with FRAND, the fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory licensing standard, but neither disclosed royalty rates or the purchase price for the transferred U.S. patents. No 8-K has been filed with the SEC (Financial News).

The reversal closes a loop that began in 2001, when Huawei first paid Qualcomm for mobile patents, and ended in a 2020 settlement in which Huawei paid $1.8 billion to close a dispute litigated since 2017. Huawei's standards-essential patent portfolio, anchored by its polar-code work in 5G and extended into AI, compute, and networking, now sits on the licensor's side of the table for the categories Qualcomm still needs (Silicon Republic).

Bloomberg reports the deal also covers patents underpinning Huawei's LogicFolding chipmaking technique, extending it into chip-fabrication IP beyond standard telecoms SEPs. The binding constraint is now Washington: until U.S. review closes, the 25-year reversal is announced, not yet executed.