ZTE, Huawei sign billion-dollar deals with US chip firms Qualcomm, Broadcom and Avago.

WorldWide Tech Science. Francisco De Jesús.

Chinese smartphone-maker ZTE has signed contracts worth US$5 billion with US chipset vendors Qualcomm and Broadcom, according to regulatory filings. The agreement with Qualcomm is worth US$4 billion and will cover chip supplies for the period 2012-15. The Broadcom deal is valued at US$1 billion and will cover 2012-14.

Meanwhile, ZTE’s Chinese rival Huawei handed contracts worth US$6 billion to a trio of US chip firms - Qualcomm, Broadcom and Avago – over the weekend. It said the deals “underscore Huawei’s continued commitment to the US market and… will directly and indirectly create over tens of thousands of job opportunities for US.”

According to recent figures from IDC, ZTE shipped 17.1 million mobile devices in Q4 2011 (a 4 percent global market share) making it the world's fifth-largest vendor, just behind Korean rival LG, which shipped 17.7 million (a 4.1 percent share). The Chinese firm also sold 12 million smartphones in 2011 thanks to strong sales of low-cost models for local operators such as China Unicom.