Abstract:
Qualcomm Technologies and Arm Holdings resumed a five-day jury trial in the federal court in Delaware, United States, on Monday, local time. Qualcomm accused Arm of failing to provide necessary chip testing tools as per the contract and leaking a letter threatening to terminate important licensing agreements in 2024, which damaged chip cooperation negotiations between Qualcomm and Meta. Qualcomm seeks to stop paying licensing royalties to Arm for up to five years, which could amount to billions of dollars. In addition, Qualcomm also hopes to force Arm to authorize the V10 instruction set architecture.
According to Arm’s quarterly filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Qualcomm initially filed a lawsuit in April 2024, and then revised the complaint twice in 2025 and again in March 2026, adding additional breach of contract charges including Arm’s failure to negotiate certain license terms in good faith.
Qualcomm made two main accusations in this case: First, Qualcomm claimed that Arm refused to deliver the chip testing tools it should obtain under the license agreement; second, Qualcomm accused Arm of leaking to the media a letter threatening to terminate the key licensing agreement in 2024. Qualcomm said that this leak directly damaged the chip cooperation case it was negotiating with Meta Platforms.
In the opening statement, Qualcomm’s lawyer Karen Dunn directed the jury’s attention to Qualcomm’s acquisition of chip startup Nuvia in 2021, citing internal documents saying that Arm executives had called Qualcomm an “enemy” and expressed concern about the decline in licensing revenue. Dunn said Arm responded by breaching its contract and damaging Qualcomm's commercial relationship with Meta, including through "coordinated media leaks."
As one of Arm’s largest customers, Qualcomm is seeking a special relief from the court: allowing it to stop paying licensing royalties to Arm for up to five years. The cost could run into billions of dollars.
Arm fully denies Qualcomm’s accusations. Arm's lawyer Gregg LoCascio said in his opening statement that the core of Qualcomm's entire case is "the use of litigation as a means of pressure in commercial disputes." He presented evidence to the jury that Qualcomm failed to prove it suffered any actual harm. "They were not harmed at all," LoCascio said.
Arm also countered that the chip transactions mentioned by Qualcomm were only "speculative in nature" and did not cause substantial damage. In addition, Arm countered by pointing out that Qualcomm itself had leaked non-public details of Arm’s antitrust investigation to the media, so Qualcomm had no right to claim compensation for the leakage of the termination letter.
According to information disclosed by Arm in its latest annual report, Qualcomm accounted for 9% of Arm’s total revenue in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026. Arm said in the filing: "We cannot provide any assurances as to the outcome of either litigation or how the litigation will affect our relationship with Qualcomm or revenue from Qualcomm."
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