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Illustration: Rebecca Zisser/Axios
Qualcomm promised on Wednesday that it will deliver a next-generation chip using technology from its Nuvia acquisition next year, even as Arm sued to block it from such a move.
Why does it matter: Qualcomm is counting on the technology not only to reinvigorate its years-long effort to crack the PC market, but also to become the core of its entire Snapdragon processor line across smartphones, PCs, cars and mixed-reality devices.
Driving the news: Speaking at Snapdragon Summit in Maui, former Nuvia CEO Gerard Williams III (now Qualcomm senior VP) announced the chip brand name – Oryon – and promised that customers will be able to get their hands on devices next year.
- He further said that Oryon will eventually be used beyond PCs as Qualcomm looks to build chips around a single architecture.
Yes but: Arm sued Qualcomm, saying that although Nuvia and Qualcomm both had Arm licenses, the Nuvia technology was not transferable without an agreement on new license terms.
- Arm said it revoked Nuvia’s license and is asking a court to force Qualcomm to destroy all of the Nuvia-developed technology.
Between the lines: The Arm-Qualcomm dispute is messy, with many subplots and wrinkles.
- Qualcomm is one of Arm’s biggest customers, but it also has a very favorable licensing agreement that allows it to pay less than many newer licensees.
- Also, Qualcomm actively opposed SoftBank’s effort to sell Arm to Nvidia, a deal that was later scrapped by regulators.
- And then there’s Apple, which is suing Williams (a former Apple employee), arguing that he planned Nuvia’s technology and recruited other Apple employees while still working for the iPhone maker.
- That gives Apple some aligned interests with Arm, especially since Arm is asking to force Qualcomm to destroy any technology that comes out of Nuvia and uses Arm’s technology. Apple would be very happy if Nuvia’s technology never saw the light of day.
What they say: In interviews with Axios, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon said the suit will not affect Qualcomm’s plans and that devices running Nuvia-based chips will arrive in the second half of 2023.
- Eventually, he said the Nuvia technology will come to “everything we do.”
- He didn’t say which markets it would come to or when, but hinted that mobile could be next. “You can think of what would be the obvious next,” Amon said Wednesday, noting there’s a reason the chip was announced at Snapdragon Summit.
- Less clear is whether Qualcomm could use the Nuvia design to try to re-enter the data center — a market that Qualcomm exited but where Nuvia was focused before its acquisition by Qualcomm.
- Amon said Qualcomm is mostly focused on what it sees as a potential $700 billion market for devices beyond the smartphone, but added that “We’re opportunistic about the data center.”
- “Some of the things we want to do on the edge, they have value in the data center, especially if you want to do data reprocessing,” he said.
Go deeper: What’s behind the big Arm-Qualcomm lawsuit
Disclosure: Reporting for this article took place at Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit in Maui, where I moderated a video interview on Wednesday. Qualcomm paid my travel expenses.
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