Qualcomm to license Huawei patents tied to LogicFolding

Qualcomm has reached a multiyear cross-license agreement with Huawei that includes 5G devices, AI services, near- and co-packaged optics and networks, and plans to buy selected Huawei U.S. patents in compute, AI, networking and other technologies. Bloomberg reported that some of the patents underpin Huawei’s LogicFolding chip-stacking approach, although neither company identified the patents or named the architecture in announcements.

LogicFolding is already used in Huawei’s Kirin 9050 Pro, the chip in the Mate XT 2 tri-fold smartphone. Teardown work from Geekerwan and die-shot analysis from Kurnal show two face-to-face bonded dies, with compute-heavy execution units largely on the upper die and cache, I/O and PLLs concentrated below. Huawei says the design uses vertical interconnects to shorten signal paths and reduce energy use.

The deal still requires regulatory approval and is subject to Federal Trade Commission review under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act. Bloomberg reported Qualcomm will pay Huawei to license patents for the first time, marking a reversal from the companies’ long licensing history, while outside analysts are still waiting for independent die analysis to clarify how much logic is actually stacked in the Kirin 9050 Pro.