Arm Holdings issued a 60-day ultimatum to Qualcomm, threatening to terminate the license agreement unless Qualcomm responds to Arm’s complaints about alleged violations.
The British chip technology company is accusing Qualcomm of using its chip designs without proper permission, stemming from Qualcomm’s acquisition of chip developer Nuvia in 2021. The high-stakes dispute threatens Qualcomm’s ability to use Arm’s designs and could have far-reaching implications for the smartphone industry.
The heart of the dispute centers on Qualcomm’s $1.4 billion acquisition of Nuvia, a company that develops AI chips and advanced processors such as those for the Snapdragon smartphone processor.
Arm alleges that Qualcomm is using Nuvia’s pre-acquisition design without permission. As part of its ultimatum, Arm is asking Qualcomm to scrap all Nuvia-related chip designs that existed before the acquisition. But Qualcomm harshly criticized Arm’s 60-day deadline, calling it a “baseless threat” aimed at derailing its business.
The dispute is significant because both companies play important roles in the technology industry. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors power the majority of Android smartphones around the world and rely heavily on Arm’s architecture as the chipset.
If Arm terminates the deal, Qualcomm’s product development could face significant delays and the company could be forced to stop development of certain chips. Such a scenario would not only impact Qualcomm’s business, but could also ripple across the broader smartphone market, especially Android devices that rely on Snapdragon chips.
Qualcomm strongly denies Arm’s accusations and plans to challenge them in court, with a trial scheduled for December. The company views Arm’s claims as an attempt to thwart development of new chips while increasing royalty fees, and accuses Arm of anti-competitive conduct. is fighting the breach of contract claims, arguing that Arm’s threats are baseless and aimed at disrupting ongoing technological advances.
If Arm’s termination of the license agreement goes into effect, Qualcomm may be limited to using only Arm’s pre-designed blue designs.
This could negatively impact the continued development of future Snapdragon chips, cause delays in product launches, and impact the entire smartphone industry. The outcome of this debate will be worth watching, as it has the potential to change the status quo in the design and chipset direction of the mobile industry on a very wide scale.
