Virtually all smartphones run on chip architectures from the British company Arm. And Qualcomm equips most Android phones with it. Now a dispute between companies is coming to a head.
A dispute between the semiconductor company Qualcomm and the British chip designer Arm threatens to cause severe turbulence in the billion-dollar market. The chips from various suppliers, which are found in practically all smartphones and now also more often in computers, run on Arm architectures. Arm has now informed the US group that the license agreement for the use of the designs will be terminated in 60 days, reported the financial service Bloomberg.
The licenses allow Qualcomm to develop chips based on Arm architectures, which play a central role in the company’s business. Numerous phones run on the Android operating system using chips from Qualcomm.
Qualcomm has also recently been pushing more actively into the business of processors for Windows PCs and cars. Apple, meanwhile, purchases modems from Qualcomm for connecting to mobile networks, but it itself develops chip systems for iPhones, iPads and Mac computers based on Arm architectures.
Dispute since start-up takeover
Qualcomm and Arm have been arguing for years. The conflict stems from Qualcomm’s acquisition of chip start-up Nuvia in 2021. The start-up was also a licensee for Arm architectures and from the chip designer’s perspective, Qualcomm would have had to renegotiate the agreements after the purchase.
Technologies developed at Nuvia play an important role in Qualcomm’s new PC chips. This week Qualcomm also announced that it would be bringing them to smartphone systems. Arm considers this a violation of its licensing agreements. Qualcomm described the termination announcement as unfounded in a statement.
Source: Stern
