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Qualcomm has agreed to a multiyear cross-license agreement with Huawei that includes access to LogicFolding, Huawei’s novel 3D chipmaking technique. Financial terms of the Qualcomm agreement were not disclosed. A Huawei spokesperson confirmed the deal Monday.

LogicFolding is Huawei’s approach to stacking chip layers three-dimensionally, a technique that increases compute density without requiring access to the advanced lithography nodes Huawei lost when US export controls tightened. The method represents Huawei’s most significant proprietary advance in semiconductor manufacturing outside of TSMC’s process technology.

What the License Covers

The cross-license spans four technology areas:

• LogicFolding chipmaking patents
• 5G device technologies
• AI services
• Near- and co-packaged optics and networks

A cross-license means both parties gain access to the other’s IP portfolio. Qualcomm brings its 5G and AI chip patent portfolio; Huawei brings LogicFolding and its optics IP.

Strategic Implications

For Huawei, this is a licensing revenue win and a signal that its home-developed chip innovations have enough value to attract Western counterparties. The company has been expanding its IP licensing programme since being cut off from TSMC and ASML. Qualcomm becomes the first major US chip company to license LogicFolding-specific patents.

For Qualcomm, the access is relevant to its chiplet and advanced packaging roadmap, which is expanding as customers including AWS — with which Qualcomm signed a $60 billion collaboration deal in September — move toward heterogeneous chip integration. LogicFolding’s 3D stacking techniques could inform how Qualcomm approaches future packaging generations without waiting on TSMC to develop equivalents.

The deal marks a rare instance of a US semiconductor company licensing packaging IP from a Chinese rival under the current export control framework. Patent cross-licensing is generally exempt from the most restrictive technology transfer controls, and no US government objection to the agreement has been reported.

Pricing and production timelines for LogicFolding-based chips at Qualcomm have not been disclosed.