Well according to this other article, Intel and AMD's patent cross-license expired in 2015[1]. I'm not sure if that was the only agreement they had relating to x86 IP, but if so that makes this deal more likely to go through, if they can get past the export controls.
I am slightly curious how much actual innovation (new patents) there are since 1996, that would need to be cross licensed by either given company... the bulk of legacy x86 (not x86-64) is expired. Excluding certain extensions.
Yeah, I have no idea and I also suspect that very few new patents by either company are directly related to x86. Intel is still one of the most prolific patent recipients though, so one might have to dig through them to see. I suspect they are mostly related to fab design and lithography, though.
It would be microarchitecture, SOC, or commercial application patents. Even one or two critical ones could be good ammo. I doubt Intel or AMD stopped at 1 or 2, though. ;)
1. http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329517