Qualcomm may no Longer be Allowed to use ARM IP to Design CPUs

Qualcomm is an American company that designs CPUs. ARM is a British company that licenses off-the-shelf CPU core designs to other manufacturers. Unlike the x86 architecture designed by Intel that is featured in virtually all modern desktops and laptops, ARM-based CPU designs are low power and are widely used in smartphones, cars, and the burgeoning IoT world (think smart doorbells, thermostats, etc). All 64-bit Qualcomm CPUs use some variation of ARM’s intellectual property. Qualcomm licenses ARM’s IP and pays royalties to ARM. ARM derives the bulk of its revenue from fees of this nature.

This headline is a recent development in a spat between Qualcomm and ARM dating back to 2021. Qualcomm had acquired a company named Nuvia that licensed off-the-shelf ARM IP to create modified CPU cores. Qualcomm has since incorporated Nuvia’s output into its own CPU designs. ARM argues Qualcomm must re-negotiate with ARM anew and cannot just use Nuvia’s existing designs, and that the acquisition had “breached” Nuvia’s ARM licenses.

With this announcement, Qualcomm has 60 days to either re-negotiate some sort of new agreement with ARM, or cease to ship products with ARM intellectual property (that is, virtually everything Qualcomm produces). The impacts of this will be massive – the majority of Android phones use Qualcomm SoCs, as do many other IoT devices with 5G connectivity, and increasingly laptops as well (a Microsoft-led initiative).

Qualcomm and ARM had been slated to go to trial in December 2024 before this news broke.

Sources:
https://www.reuters.com/technology/arm-holdings-cancel-qualcomm-chip-design-license-bloomberg-news-reports-2024-10-23/
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/10/report-arm-cancels-qualcomms-architecture-license-endangering-its-chip-business