Before tackling this incredible story, a bit of context is necessary: In March 2021, Qualcomm finalized its $1.4 billion acquisition of startup Nivea, with the primary goal of entering the PC market with its Snapdragon processors. A significant investment had to be made. Thanks to an SoC based on ARM technology. Today, however, Snapdragon is contesting ARM’s use of this license for the latest Qualcomm chips, and is urging the semiconductor company to stop all use of ARM’s intellectual property.
ARM dropped a bombshell on the mobile industry.
Bloomberg revealed the information on October 23, 2024: ARM sent Qualcomm a contract termination notice, technically giving the company 60 days to cease all ARM-related activities. However, Qualcomm has put the majority of its recent work on chips using ARM technology. Thus, recently, the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip was announced, and planned to integrate many smartphones such as Xiaomi 15 Ultra or ASUS ROG Phone 9. The same goes for the Snapdragon X Elite, which caused a sensation this summer. The first ARM chip intended to power Windows laptops. It’s also the popular X Elite chip that caused consternation between Intel and AMD, who at this point formed an alliance to save their x86 architecture.
So how can the conflict be resolved? This situation could have a direct impact on Qualcomm’s chip production, which, apparently, could cause a lot of damage to the entire Android mobile industry. Qualcomm is actually behind about a third of the mobile processors currently in circulation. Such a situation is certainly a boon for the competition (especially MediaTek, which has recently benefited from a huge surge in popularity), which could be quickly approached by smartphone makers looking to replace Qualcomm. . For the moment, it’s unclear: it remains to be determined how the situation will be resolved (will a deal be reached, or will the two companies start a legal battle?) One thing is certain, both firms Relations between the two are unlikely to improve, as a Qualcomm spokesperson told Reuters: “It’s pretty much the same with ARM: regardless of our extended architecture license rights, further unfounded threats to strengthen a longtime partner, interfere with our modern processors, and increase royalty rates.“
