In a shocking move, Arm cancels Qualcomm's license to manufacture Snapdragon chips
This architectural license agreement has been the cornerstone of the partnership that has kept Android smartphones humming with Qualcomm's cutting-edge processors for years.
The long-simmering battle between British chip designer Arm and American semiconductor superstar Qualcomm has just reached a boiling point. Arm has now given Qualcomm notice that it is terminating the license allowing Qualcomm to create its own chips based on Arm's intellectual property.
This "architectural license" agreement has been the cornerstone of the partnership that has kept Android smartphones humming with Qualcomm's cutting-edge processors for years. Now, according to documents viewed by Bloomberg, Arm has fired off a 60-day cancellation notice that could bring this long-standing deal crumbling down.
For the uninitiated, the hostility between these two tech titans that were once close partners stems from Qualcomm's $1.4 billion acquisition of chip design startup Nuvia in 2021.
Arm alleges that when Qualcomm acquired Nuvia, it violated the licensing terms since Nuvia already had a separate agreement with Arm. The company's stance is that Qualcomm should have renegotiated those terms instead of simply absorbing Nuvia's existing Arm licenses. This led Arm to sue Qualcomm in 2022 for breach of contract and trademark infringement.
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