The new Windows on ARM Copilot+ PC thing, running on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite and Pro chips, isn’t even out the door yet, and we’re already dealing with legal proceedings.
But the main conversation among conference attendees was over how a contract dispute between Arm Holdings and Qualcomm, which work together to make the chips powering these new laptops, could abruptly halt the shipment of new PCs that industry leaders expect will make Microsoft and its partners billions of dollars.
↫ Max A. Cherney at Reuters
The basic gist of the story is as follows. Qualcomm acquired a company named Nuvia, founded by former Apple processor engineers, in order to gain new technology to build its Snapdragon X Elite and Pro chips. Nuvia was planning on developing ARM chips for servers, but after the acquisition, Qualcomm changed their plans and repurposed their technology for use in laptops – the new X chips. ARM claims that Nuvia was only granted a license for server use, and not laptop use. Qualcomm, meanwhile, argued that it has a broad license to use ARM for pretty much anything, and as such, that any possible restrictions Nuvia had are irrelevant.
While this all sounds like very rich corporations having a silly legal slapfight, it could have real consequences. If the legal case goes very, very wrong for Qualcomm, it could halt the sale of devices powered by the Snapdragon X chips well before they’re even shipping. I doubt it’ll get that far – it rarely does, and there’s some big names and big reputations at play here – but it does highlight the absurdity of how the ARM ecosystem works.
Speaking of the ARM ecosystem, Qualcomm isn’t the only ARM chip makers dying to break into the PC market. Qualcomm currently has a weird exclusivity agreement with Microsoft where it’s the only ARM chip supplier for PCs, but that agreement is running out soon. Another player that’s ready to storm this market once that happens is MediaTek, who is also developing a chip geared towards Microsoft’s Copilot+ specifications, with a release target of 2025. Let’s hope MediaTek will be as forthcoming with Linux support as Qualcomm surprisingly has been, but I have my sincerest doubt.
This right here is ARM trying to make x86 and RISC-V the two dominant architectures in the industry.
Do not get me wrong, even if the world went RISC-V, this kind of thing could still happen. This lawsuit is not about the ISA but rather the chip designs that ARM says that it worked on with Qualcomm. In the future, somebody like StarFive could be bringing this lawsuit instead ( not saying they would ).
That said, the whole intellectual property tar pit is going to be so much worse on ARM. The big important ARM customers ( eg. Apple and Qualcomm ) are creating their own designs and do not need ARM for that. RISC-V is starting to become viable for the smaller players that use ARM’s off the shelf designs. They are going to get squeezed at exactly the time they are already pushing for greater monetization. The inevitable result is greater legal conflict and the more legal drama there is surrounding ARM, the more attractive RISC-V is going to look.
It is pretty clear of course that this is a cash grab. They know how valuable the new X Elite chips are and the threat of “throwing away the designs” is just putting pressure on that. The clear message here is “pay us”. In the end, ARM will probably get paid something so the lawsuit will really be all about that. As I said in my other comment though, this will create a chilling effect across the ARM ecosystem.
Imagine if they actually did prevent these from launching. Talk about biting off your nose to spite your face. I am not sure this lawsuit is the best move for ARM overall.
This.
ARM is watching as a proverbial ocean of money is going to flow, and they can’t stand the idea that they won’t see a cent of it. So they’re rattle their sabre, make themselves a petulant pain in the rear, and ultimately they’ll get a little extra money and have a second chance to iron out their licence to avoid this happening again.
These lawsuits happen all the time. It’s about costs/contract structures.
ARM claims that Qualcomm has to honor the contract they did with Nuvia. That contract included IP from ARM and specific licensing costs.
Qualcomm claims that they can instead use their architecture license they have with ARM to override the cost structures that Nuvia had negotiated previously.
So it is more about ARM trying to maintain the initial revenue, and Qualcomm trying to pay less.
It’s basically how capitalism works: trying to maximize product revenue and minimize production costs.