Arm and Qualcomm’s bitter legal feud over licensing of chip design is heading to trial on Monday, in a high-stakes battle that will shed light on how two of the world’s biggest chip companies — and former allies — turned against each other over a $1.4bn start-up acquisition.
The Delaware trial, which is expected to last about a week, is set to feature testimony from both Arm chief executive Rene Haas and Qualcomm chief executive Cristiano Amon.
At the heart of the dispute is Qualcomm’s acquisition of Santa Clara-based chip designer Nuvia in 2021, which had a chip architecture licence from Arm. At the same time Qualcomm is one of Arm’s biggest customers, with its own licence for Arm’s architecture, which is used as a foundation for designing chips.