Arm Reportedly Warns Qualcomm It Will Cancel Its Licenses

Chip designer Arm has reportedly warned chipmaker Qualcomm it will soon cancel its license to produce processors using its IP.

News of that drastic step emerged on Tuesday in a Bloomberg report that claims the newswire has seen an Arm document sent to Qualcomm that warns its architectural license will be cancelled in 60 days.

It's believed the threat is related to Qualcomm's 2022 acquisition of Nuvia, an Arm licensee. Nuvia's license allowed it to develop custom chips based on Arm IP. Arm claimed the license issued to Nuvia did not transfer to Qualcomm, and the matter has been disputed ever since.

Nuvia's tech has since become the Oryon custom CPU cores that Qualcomm deployed in the Snapdragon Elite range of SoCs that now power Copilot+ PCs – Microsoft's designation for PCs capable of running on-device AI. Just this week, Qualcomm also announced Oryon-powered SoCs for mobile devices.

If Qualcomm loses its Nuvia-linked license, its latest and greatest product lines would therefore be toast.

Bloomberg reports that the threat to tear up the license comes with an eight-week deadline to resolve the dispute.

A Qualcomm spokesperson told us "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."

"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.”

• Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon 8 Elite with custom cores for Android phones
• Qualcomm guns for Intel, AMD with cheaper 8-core X chips
• It's about time Intel, AMD dropped x86 games and turned to the real threat
• As Arm rivals cook up custom silicon, Mediatek sticks to tried-and-true Cortex recipe

Qualcomm has every right to be angry as the timing of the report is delicious: Qualcomm is in the middle of its annual Snapdragon Summit – a gabfest at which it shows off its latest and greatest. It's an amazing coincidence that Bloomberg was able to view a legal document at this time.

Such a document certainly gives Qualcomm plenty to think about, as its PC-and-smartphone-making customers will want certainty around future supply.

Arm itself has investors to satisfy. The design studio returned to partial public ownership in 2023, but Japanese investment house SoftBank remains its majority shareholder.

The Register has sought comment from Arm but had not received a reply at the time of publication.

We've grabbed some popcorn while we wait for a response. ®