It all began when Qualcomm bought Nuvia in an effort to increase its presence in servers and PC CPUs, which would also increase ARM's market share. As a result of Qualcomm's USD 1.4 billion purchase of Nuvia, ARM is suing Qualcomm. Because the purchase of Nuvia resulted in a violation of ARM's licences, ARM has initiated a lawsuit.
Why Is Nuvia Important and What Is It? Let's look at Nuvia before we get into the ARM vs. Qualcomm dispute. Due to the fact that top engineers from Apple's processing division formed Nuvia, it quickly gained notoriety. Former Apple CPU developer and current SP of Qualcomm Engineering Gerard Williams III also worked on the M1 chipset in addition to being the CEO of Nuvia.
It should be noted that Nuvia is an ARM subsidiary. In 2021, Qualcomm acquired Nuvia, giving the well-known mobile CPU company access to Apple's personnel and playbook. The acquisition opened the possibility to ARM's designs being scaled for more potent devices.
How come ARM is suing Qualcomm?
The specifics of the latest case that ARM has brought against Qualcomm are described in a Reuters report. The case PDF states that according to ARM, the acquisition "led Nuvia to break its ARM licences, resulting in ARM terminating those rights, and in turn compelling Qualcomm and Nuvia to cease using and destroying any ARM-based technology developed under the licences."
"Arm's rights as the creator and licensor are being violated by Qualcomm and Nuvia, who have persisted in working on Nuvia's version of the ARM architecture."of its technology," it further explains. The lawsuit says both Nuvia and Qualcomm held an "Architecture License Agreement (ALA)," which is the higher tier of ARM licensing.
About a year has passed since Qualcomm and ARM began negotiating. The corporations are unable to reach a consensus, necessitating a current legal dispute.
The Verge was told by Qualcomm that they would win the case. "Contractually or otherwise, ARM has no authority to make any effort to obstruct Qualcomm's or NUVIA's ideas. The fact that Qualcomm has extensive, well-established licence rights covering its custom-designed CPUs is ignored by ARM's case, and we are sure that those rights will be upheld "said the article. In the upcoming days, we'll learn more details regarding the judicial processes.
