Arm Threatens To Cancel Qualcomm’s Chip Design License

Amid Qualcomm’s ongoing Snapdragon Summit event, Arm Holdings has threatened the American chipmaker that it will cancel an architectural license that is used for developing Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon 8 Elite chipsets. Bloomberg reports that Arm has given a 60-day notice of cancellation to Qualcomm.

In case you are unaware, the chief architect of Apple Silicon, Gerard Williams left the Cupertino giant to start Nuvia in 2019. Nuvia wanted to build Arm-based server CPUs and started working on the Phoenix CPU architecture. Arm issued an architecture license to Nuvia to design the custom Phoenix CPU.

However, Qualcomm acquired Nuvia in 2021 and set out to build a powerful mobile SoC that would compete with Apple Silicon in performance and efficiency. The plan to build server CPUs was dropped by Nuvia and the Oryon CPU was born for mobile SoCs.

Arm filed a lawsuit against both Qualcomm and Nuvia arguing that its original licensing terms with Nuvia were for server CPUs which is a lower-volume product. And that license is now being used to design higher-volume mobile chipsets like Nuvia-designed Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon 8 Elite. The royalty rate is different for server and mobile CPUs.

Since then, Qualcomm and Arm have failed to re-negotiate a new licensing term and the legal dispute is ongoing. The trial is scheduled to start in December this year. But just before the trial, Arm issued a cancellation notice to Qualcomm.

Reacting to the development, Qualcomm’s spokesperson said in an email statement, “This is more of the same from ARM – more unfounded threats designed to strongarm a longtime partner, interfere with our performance-leading CPUs, and increase royalty rates regardless of the broad rights under our architecture license.“

The statement further reads, “With a trial fast approaching in December, Arm’s desperate ploy appears to be an attempt to disrupt the legal process, and its claim for termination is completely baseless. We are confident that Qualcomm’s rights under its agreement with Arm will be affirmed. Arm’s anticompetitive conduct will not be tolerated.“

Now, if the court rules in Arm’s favor, Qualcomm will be forced to stop shipments of its Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon 8 Elite processors, impacting both Windows and Android ecosystems.