Qualcomm, along with its subsidiary Nuvia, have finally won the legal battle against Arm Holdings, which had accused the chip-maker of violating license agreements tied to its chip designs. A U.S. District Court judge in Delaware ruled that neither Qualcomm nor its subsidiary breached any of Arm’s architecture license agreement (ALA), dismissing the lone remaining claim in the case and also rejecting Arm’s request for a new trial.
The latest ruling follows Qualcomm’s trial victory from December 2024, where the company was found innocent. However, at the time, the jury was unable to agree on whether Nuvia violated its licensing terms with Arm.
Arm claimed that Qualcomm was supposed to renegotiate licensing terms following its acquisition of Nuvia. Additionally, Arm demanded that the designs be scrapped for allegedly breaching Nuvia’s original Arm licenses. Qualcomm, however, maintained that its existing Architecture License Agreement (ALA) for Arm’s instruction set architecture already extended to designs developed by its subsidiaries, including Nuvia.
Williams co-founded Nuvia in 2019 with the aim of building high-performance, energy-efficient custom CPU cores for datacenters, known as Phoenix. To do so, the company secured two licenses from Arm, including a Technology License Agreement (TLA) to modify existing cores and an Architecture License Agreement (ALA) to design custom ones. Since Nuvia’s strategy was to pursue custom designs from the outset, the team developed its cores from scratch, relying minimally on Arm’s physical IP.
Qualcomm has stated that a separate lawsuit against Arm is still ongoing. The case involves claims of breach of contract, interference with customer relationships, and conduct aimed at hindering innovation while promoting Arm’s own products over those of long-standing partners. The company added that it expects the trial to begin in March 2026.
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