Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said during the company’s 1Q25 earnings conference call that Arm “has no current plan to terminate the Qualcomm Architecture License Agreement.” This announcement came soon after it won over Arm in a legal battle over the custom core designs that Nuvia made. When Qualcomm bought Nuvia for its CPU designs and used it as part of the Oryon CPUs found in its Snapdragon chips, Arm was up in arms, saying that Nuvia cannot transfer its designs without prior approval, reports The Register.
This has led to a massive legal feud between the two companies, with Arm terminating Qualcomm’s license and demanding that Nuvia’s blueprints be destroyed. Arm says that it’s missing out on $50 million of annual royalties because Qualcomm did not renegotiate Nuvia’s license after the acquisition; however, the Snapdragon designer argues that its Oryon CPU cores use less than 1% of original Arm tech, saying that it’s almost entirely custom.
Despite Qualcomm’s victory, Arm is still asking for further clarification on the legalities of the deal, especially as the jury is hung on whether Nuvia was in breach of its contract with the company. Because of this, there’s a chance that Arm would ask for a retrial, at least for this issue.
Nevertheless, Arm’s legal defeat to Qualcomm has no expected effect on the company’s bottom line and revenue forecast. Arm CFO Jason Child said the company assumed it wouldn’t win the lawsuit and would continue receiving royalties from Qualcomm from its existing ALA and other licenses. “The primary reason for the lawsuit was very much around defending our IP and that’s important,” Child said. “But from a financial perspective, we had assumed that we’ll continue to be receiving royalties at basically the same rates that they’ve been paying for in the past and will continue to pay.”
Even though Arm was unsuccessful in forcing Qualcomm to renegotiate its contracts, it still benefits from the latter’s success. During its last quarterly earnings announcement, the Snapdragon maker said that its revenue jumped by 18% yearly, leading to a 15% growth in its net income. It also claimed it cornered 10% of the U.S. Windows PC retail market for $800 and up devices. Arm’s revenue for this period also increased by 18% year over year, showing how closely the two companies are connected.
