Nokia and Xiaomi, two widely known and renowned companies, announced today that they were signing a business cooperation and patent licensing agreement. It's not uncommon to see joint ventures between corporations, but these two seem like an unlikely pair at first glance.

Under the agreement, both companies will share "cellular standard essential patents," with Xiaomi acquiring certain assets from Nokia (whose portfolio is massive). Beyond just that, the two entities will also work together on delivering high capacity/low power solutions for datacenters and large web providers, as well as IP routing that centers around Nokia's new network processor. Future cooperative opportunities include the Internet of Things, augmented/virtual reality, and AI.

So it makes sense that Nokia and Xiaomi would work together, especially with the latter's Asian (and nearby) presence and both companies' brand identity/loyalty. I'll be curious to see what comes of all of this.

Source: Nokia