Nokia, Xiaomi Announces Business Collaboration

Finnish communications and IT company Nokia and Chinese Electronics Company Xiaomi on Wednesday (5 July) announced business collaboration and a multi-year patent agreement, including a cross-license to each company's cellular standard-essential patents. Xiaomi also acquired patent assets from Nokia as part of the transaction.

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 data center operators.

Rajeev Suri, President & CEO of Nokia, said, "Xiaomi is one of the world's leading smartphone manufacturers and we are delighted to have reached an agreement with them. In addition to welcoming such a prominent global technology company to our family of patent licensees, we look forward to working together on a wide range of strategic projects."

Nokia and Xiaomi will work together on optical transport solutions for data center interconnect, IP Routing based on Nokia's newly announced FP4 network processor, and a data center fabric solution. In addition, the companies have agreed to explore opportunities for further cooperation, in areas such as Internet of Things, augmented and virtual reality, and artificial intelligence.

With presence in over 30 countries and regions, Xiaomi is well known for its smartphones packed with innovative technologies at disruptive prices. Beyond smartphones, Xiaomi is also a leading Internet of Things player. The Mi Ecosystem IoT platform has crossed 60 million connected devices, and there are now over 8 million daily active connected devices on the Mi Ecosystem platform.

Lei Jun, chairman and CEO of Xiaomi, said, "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."