Intel to Pay Nvidia $1.5 Billion in Licensing Fees

 The Intel / NVIDIA licensing dispute has finally come to an end with Intel agreeing to a new 6-year cross-license agreement worth $1.5 Billion.

For the future use of NVIDIA’s technology, Intel will pay NVIDIA an aggregate of $1.5 billion in licensing fees payable in five annual installments, beginning Jan. 18, 2011. NVIDIA and Intel have also agreed to drop all outstanding legal disputes between them. “This agreement signals a new era for NVIDIA,” said Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA’s president and chief executive officer.

“Our cross license with Intel reflects the substantial value of our visual and parallel computing technologies. It also underscores the importance of our inventions to the future of personal computing, as well as the expanding markets for mobile and cloud computing.”

Under the new agreement, Intel will have continued access to NVIDIA’s full range of patents.  In return, NVIDIA will receive an aggregate of $1.5 billion in licensing fees, to be paid in annual installments, and retain use of Intel’s patents, consistent with its existing six-year agreement with Intel. This excludes Intel’s proprietary processors, flash memory and certain chipsets for the Intel platform.  The existing agreement is to expire March 31, 2011.

source here.