Qualcomm-ARM Chip Licensing Dispute Might Put The Future of Snapdragon X CPUs At Stake

ARM & Qualcomm's long-running lawsuit surrounding chip licensing terms might have a devastating impact on the AI PC industry and the Snapdragon X CPU family if matters go south.

The rapidly growing AI PC markets might have hit a roadblock, given that the existence of Qualcomm's Snapdragon CPUs may be at stake here.

A few days ago, a report by Reuters disclosed the fact that major system integrators such as Microsoft, Acer, and ASUS sat down with Qualcomm's CEO Christian Amon, with the primary discussion involving the ongoing lawsuit between ARM and Qualcomm on an issue which is now existent for more than two years. While the lawsuit hasn't been conclusive yet, if ARM wins the case, then Qualcomm's CPUs in the markets might be in huge trouble.

Before we go in-depth on the issue, let's take a look at the Qualcomm-ARM lawsuit. The case originally opened up back in 2022, when ARM sued Qualcomm for the violation of their chip licensing agreement after Qualcomm acquired Nuvia, a startup based on chip licensing for professional products. With Nuvia, Qualcomm utilized the firm's technology to develop its newest laptop processors. ARM believes it violates their agreement, and parties should re-negotiate for revised terms and conditions. Qualcomm says that their agreement already covers licensing for laptop processors.

With this lawsuit hopefully concluding in the future, things could go sideways for Qualcomm if ARM wins its case since it could potentially halt the sales of the firm's Snapdragon X Elite SKUs, potentially affecting plenty of system integrators that have already put out a lineup on the new processors and ARM has seen massive adoption out of it. It could also lead to product callbacks and several other issues, creating a "domino" effect for Qualcomm. However, let's not jump to conclusions just yet, given that ARM and Qualcomm could also agree, which will avoid this situation as a whole.

It is said that the Qualcomm-ARM dispute has been a primary concern for manufacturers. In light of this, companies are now leaning towards an NVIDIA-MediaTek AI PC chip solution for the markets, with Microsoft and others in line for immediate adoption. We'll have to wait and see how the situation pans out.