Qualcomm scored another win in its ongoing legal face-off with Arm Holdings. These two big tech players have been butting heads over licensing agreements, creating a dramatic narrative that had the potential to severely impact Copilot+ PCs embedded with Snapdragon chips. Back in December, Qualcomm chalked up two significant victories in this saga. This week, Qualcomm announced a game-changing update: Arm has decided to back off from its threat to cancel the licensing deal with Qualcomm.
In a recent earnings call, Qualcomm let out a sigh of relief as they shared the latest developments:
“The jury’s verdict was a testament to Qualcomm’s ingenuity in CPU technology. It confirmed that Qualcomm’s contract with ARM extends to our products featuring our proprietary Oryon CPUs across sectors like smartphones, automotive, next-gen PCs, IoT, and datacenters. Moreover, Arm has informed us they’re retracting their October 22, 2024 notice of breach, and for now, they don’t foresee terminating the Qualcomm Architecture License Agreement.”
Last year, the showdown between Arm and Qualcomm escalated to a nail-biting legal standoff. Arm’s threat to pull the plug on their licensing agreement with Qualcomm could have rung alarm bells across several industries. Qualcomm’s chips, underpinned by Arm licenses, are the backbone of countless devices worldwide, including many popular smartphones and PCs. Additionally, they play a crucial role in datacenters, IoT, and manufacturing environments.
The crux of the lawsuit between Arm and Qualcomm revolved around the Snapdragon X processors. While Qualcomm built these chips using Arm’s licensed technology, Arm argued that this was done without due licensing. Qualcomm’s defense rested on existing agreements secured by Nuvia, a company it acquired in 2021. Notably, Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, which uses Oryon technology rooted in the Nuvia acquisition, was also potentially at stake.
December’s legal victory for Qualcomm clarified that their Snapdragon X chips were indeed created with Arm licensing. However, this ruling only addressed two out of Arm’s three contentions, leaving room for continued legal wrangling. Still, this week’s development signals a clear win for Qualcomm, suggesting that consumers can expect to see Snapdragon-equipped PCs continuing to grace store shelves.
