ARM is dropping Qualcomm’s chip design license

Qualcomm is in the midst of getting its chip architectural license stripped from ARM. A new Bloomberg News report suggests ARM has sent out a 60-day notice to Qualcomm, informing the semiconductor giant that it is terminating its chip design license.

This development could prove to be a severe blow to Qualcomm’s chipset development plans for smartphones, laptops, and automotive industry. The current situation traces its roots to a legal dispute from 2022 when ARM filed a lawsuit against Qualcomm over a breach of contract and trademark infringement regarding the development of custom Phoenix cores without ARM’s consent.

Qualcomm is one of ARM’s biggest customers, and canceling its contract would be detrimental to both companies. Newer Qualcomm CPUs like Oryon don’t use ARM cores anymore but they still rely on ARM's instruction set that allows hardware and software to communicate.

It remains to be seen how Qualcomm will respond and if it will reach a deal with ARM in time before the legal dispute reaches US federal courtroom in Delaware this December. Speculations suggest that an out-of-court settlement may be on its way beforehand though.