The standoff between Arm and Qualcomm takes a new turn. According to Bloombergthe British chipmaker has given its long-time partner 60 days’ notice to cancel their architectural licensing agreement. A hard blow for Qualcomm which could be deprived of a key technology for its mobile chips.
Arm and Qualcomm: from partners to rivals
Arm and Qualcomm are two giants of the semiconductor industry, but their relationship has deteriorated in recent years:
- Arm, owned by SoftBank, designs the basic architecture of mobile chips. It licenses it to customers like Qualcomm or Apple who then adapt it for their own chips.
- Qualcomm dominates the SoC market for Android smartphones with its Snapdragon chips, previously based on Arm cores.
- But in 2021, Qualcomm bought Nuvia, a startup designing custom cores based on Arm. A buyout that did not please Arm.
- Arm sued Qualcomm in 2022, accusing it of violating the terms of the license by integrating Nuvia’s technology without renegotiating.
Arm’s ultimatum to Qualcomm
With this 60-day notice, Arm is putting pressure on Qualcomm as their trial scheduled for December approaches. If Qualcomm does not comply with Arm’s demands, it could have to stop selling chips that account for a large part of its $39 billion in revenue.
A blow at a time when Qualcomm has just unveiled the Snapdragon 8 Elite, its first mobile chip integrating Oryon cores from Nuvia. A highly anticipated chip for its gains in performance and energy efficiency.
Towards an emancipation from Qualcomm?
But Qualcomm does not intend to let this happen. In a press release, the company denounces “a desperate attempt by Arm to disrupt the legal process” and says it is “confident that its rights will be confirmed”.
This standoff also pushes Qualcomm to free itself from Arm. The firm is working with Google on a new open-source architecture, RISC-V, for its future chips. A way to reduce its dependence on its bulky British partner.
Apple is also dependent on Arm since all its Apple Silicon chips are based on the British company’s technology, but relations seem better than with Qualcomm. We can bet that it stays that way because the Cupertino company is currently incapable of designing its own chips from A to Z; a dependence which is reminiscent of the links between Apple and TSMC for the manufacturing of chips.
