Qualcomm bought a startup founded by former Apple Silicon chip designers
Qualcomm bought a startup founded by former Apple Silicon mobile chip designers. They attempted to use the startups licensing from Arm instead of renegotiating the licensee terms. Qualcomm has its own Arm licensing but it varies from the type of license held by the startup that Qualcomm now owns. Arm Holdings has stated they need a new license as the startup license no longer applies. There are two types of Arm licenses. One you license the designs for your SoC from Arm. This is how Qualcomm makes the Snapdragon SoC processors. The startup had a sweet deal on the other type of Arm license. The type that Apple uses where you license the architecture instruction set but are free to change it however you wish. Effectively granting you the rights to create an entirely custom arm64 clone processor of your own design. The startup had that license at a deep discount for a variety of reasons. Since Qualcomm bought out the startup, Arm Holdings wants to renegotiate the terms of the license and it seems there is a clause in the license contract that covers acquisitions. The license is invalid if company A is bought by company B. Qualcomm doesn't want to pay the exorbitant fees that Arm Holdings wants to charge. Qualcomm wants to compete with Apple and they cannot do that if they have to use the Arm designs. They just don't want to pay so much to do so. Apple is a former Arm member. They sold their stake in Arm years ago to help save Apple while also taking a $300M loan from Microsoft. However, they have a grandfathered license and relationship with Arm that goes all the way back to Acorn and the Newton. So no doubt, Apple has a discount yet still pays considerable sums to Arm Holding. It's all about money.