Qualcomm Secures Partial Victory in Licensing Battle With Arm

A jury this week awarded Qualcomm a partial victory in its dispute with British chipmaker Arm, which accused the Snapdragon manufacturer of breaching a license for its chip technology.

Arm had accused Qualcomm of breaching the terms of its licensing agreement after it acquired startup Nuvia Inc. for $1.4 billion in 2021 and then used Nuvia’s technology without paying Arm a higher licensing rate.

As Reuters reports, the jury found that Qualcomm did not breach the Arm license and that its existing chip lineup is properly licensed under an existing Arm deal. However, the jury could not reach a unanimous decision on whether Nuvia breached its own Arm license, so the judge declared a mistrial.

According to Reuters, Arm will request a new trial, though the judge cautioned against it since neither side “would have had a clear victory if this case is tried again.” She instead recommended mediation.

“We are pleased with today’s decision,” Qualcomm said in a statement. “The jury has vindicated Qualcomm’s right to innovate and affirmed that all the Qualcomm products at issue in the case are protected by Qualcomm’s contract with Arm. We will continue to develop performance-leading, world-class products that benefit consumers worldwide with our incredible Oryon ARM-compliant custom CPUs.”

Arm doesn’t manufacture any chips itself. Instead, it creates designs for chips (and the code needed to use them), which it licenses to third-party manufacturers like Qualcomm. Many Qualcomm chips, like the Snapdragon range, are based on Arm’s technology and are used by some of the world’s most popular smartphone manufacturers, including many smartphones from Samsung, Huawei, and Redmi.

The case had escalated in recent months. In November 2024, Arm sent Qualcomm a 60-day cancellation notice for an architectural license agreement that allowed Qualcomm to create chips based on standards owned by Arm. This could have been highly disruptive for the smartphone industry if enforced by the court.

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