ARM threatens Qualcomm and the future of millions of smartphones
Before tackling this incredible story, a little context is necessary: in March 2021, Qualcomm completes acquisition of startup Nuvia for $1.4 billionwith the main goal of significantly investing in the PC market with its Snapdragon processors, thanks to a SoC based on ARM technology. The Snapdragon However, today, ARM is contesting the use of this license for the latest Qualcomm chips, and is urging the semiconductor giant to cease all use of ARM's intellectual property.
ARM drops a bomb on the mobile industry
Bloomberg revealed the information on October 23, 2024: ARM sent a contract cancellation notice to Qualcomm, technically giving the company 60 days to cease all ARM-related activity. However, Qualcomm has based the vast majority of its recent work on chips using ARM technology. So, very recently, the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip has been announcedand designed to integrate many smartphones like the Xiaomi 15 Ultra or the ASUS ROG Phone 9. Ditto for the Snapdragon X Elite, which caused a sensation this summer by being the first ARM chip intended to power Windows laptops. It is also this famous X Elite chip which caused a panic among Intel and AMD, who for the occasion created an alliance in order to save their own x86 architecture.
So how can the conflict be resolved? This situation could have a direct impact on Qualcomm's chip production, which, implicitly, would cause great damage to the entire Android mobile industry. Qualcomm is in fact behind almost a third of the mobile processors currently in circulation. Such a situation is certainly a blessing for the competition (Mediatek in particular, which has benefited from a big boost in popularity recently), which could quickly be contacted by smartphone manufacturers in order to replace Qualcomm. For the moment, it is unclear: it remains to be determined how the situation will be resolved (will an agreement be reached, or will the two companies launch into a legal battle?). One thing is certain, relations between the two firms are unlikely to improve, as a Qualcomm spokesperson mentioned to Reuters : “It's pretty much the same with ARM: more unfounded threats aimed at strengthening a long-standing partner, interfering with our cutting-edge processors, and increasing royalty rates, regardless of extended rights of our architecture license“.
