Patent licensing moat remains unbreakable despite supply chain decoupling efforts

Qualcomm announced today that it has renewed its long-term patent licensing agreements with Apple, Huawei, and Transsion. Over the past few years, Huawei has been systematically removing American components from its smartphones—developing its own chips, writing its own operating system, and seeking alternatives for EDA tools. Most of what could be removed has been, but one layer remains untouchable: patents. For every smartphone shipped, a payment must still be remitted to San Diego, and this time, the agreement is long-term. Apple is also named in the same agreement; despite having developed its own baseband chip, it too must continue making these payments. $QCOM