Arm has taken its feud with Qualcomm to the next level, two years after filing a lawsuit against its former close partner. According to Bloomberg, the British semiconductor company has revoked the architecture license that allows Qualcomm to use its intellectual property and standards for chip design.
As the news organization notes, Qualcomm, like many other chipmakers, uses Arm’s computer code, which the chips need to run software such as operating systems. Arm has reportedly sent Qualcomm a 60-day notice of cancellation — if they don’t reach an agreement by then, it could have a huge impact on both companies’ finances and Qualcomm’s operations.
The SoftBank-backed chipmaker sued Qualcomm in 2022, when the latter bought a company called Nuvia, one of its other licensees. Arm argued that the US company did not obtain the necessary permits to transfer Nuvia’s license.
Thus, Nuvia violated their contract and it terminated its licenses, Arm explained in its lawsuit. Qualcomm has been using technology developed by Nuvia in chips designed for AI PCs, such as those of Microsoft and HP. But Arm wants the company to stop using the technology developed by Nuvia and destroy any Arm-based technology it developed before the acquisition.
Bloomberg says that if the companies do not resolve the issue within the next 60 days, Qualcomm will have to stop selling most of the chips that contribute to its $39 billion in revenue.
It seems the US chipmaker believes this is a ploy by Arm to threaten its business and extract more royalties, as its spokesperson told Bloomberg and the Financial Times: “This is just more of the same from Arm — more unfounded threats designed to coerce a longtime partner, interfere with our performance-leading CPUs, and raise royalty rates without regard to the broad rights under our architecture license.”
Qualcomm also accused Arm of attempting to obstruct the legal process, calling its grounds for license termination “completely unfounded” and saying it is confident “its rights under its agreement with Arm will be vindicated.”
Meanwhile, an Arm spokesperson told us: “Following Qualcomm’s repeated violations of Arm’s license agreement, Arm has been left with no choice but to take formal action requiring Qualcomm to cure its violations or face termination of the agreement.
This is necessary to protect the unique ecosystem that Arm and its highly valued partners have built over more than 30 years. Arm is fully prepared for the trial in December and is confident that the Court will rule in Arm’s favour.”
After CES and ahead of Samsung’s Unpacked, the Engadget crew had a quick chance to catch its collective breath this week. But we’ve still had a look at the deal machine to see which tech sales are worth your money.
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