Xiaomi's cross-licensing deal with Nokia sees both brands collaborating on VR and AI

Xiaomi enters into a landmark cross-licensing deal with Nokia.

Xiaomi signed a broad cross-licensing deal with Microsoft last year, and the Chinese manufacturer is now inking a similar agreement with Nokia. The deal will see both companies cross-licensing each other's cellular standard essential patents, with Xiaomi also picking up an unspecified number of patents from Nokia.

The deal will benefit Xiaomi's burgeoning Mi Ecosystem platform, which has clocked sales in excess of 60 million devices and has 8 million adily active devices. Alongside the IoT segment, both brands have signified an interest in exploring augmented and virtual reality as well as artificial intelligence.

Xiaomi will also become a customer of Nokia's network equipment:

Under the business cooperation agreement, Nokia will provide network infrastructure equipment designed to deliver the high capacity, low power requirements expected by large web providers and datacenter operators. Nokia and Xiaomi will work together on optical transport solutions for datacenter interconnect, IP Routing based on Nokia's newly announced FP4 network processor, and a data center fabric solution.

Xiaomi CEO and chairman Lei Jun said that the collaboration will lead to "even more remarkable" products from the manufacturer:

As a company seeking to deliver more exciting technological innovations to the world, we are excited at the opportunity to work more closely with Nokia in future. Xiaomi is committed to building sustainable, long-term partnerships with global technology leaders.

Our collaboration with Nokia will enable us to tap on its leadership in building large, high performance networks and formidable strength in software and services, as we seek to create even more remarkable products and services that deliver the best user experience to our Mi fans worldwide.

The deal could also pave the way for HMD Global — the exclusive licensee to Nokia's brand name — to leverage Xiaomi's in-house Surge SoC in its upcoming devices. There's no official confirmation of the same, but the deal will undoubtedly aid Xiaomi's global expansion.