Qualcomm Wins Architecture Breach Verdict Against Arm With $2 Award as Judge Weighs Royalty Freeze

A federal jury in Wilmington, Delaware ruled after a five-day trial that Arm $ARM breached its longstanding Architecture License Agreement (ALA) with Qualcomm $QCOM and intentionally interfered with Qualcomm's business relationship with Meta, awarding $1 in nominal damages on each of those two counts for a total of $2. Arm prevailed on the remaining four of the six claims submitted to the jury, which included allegations under their Technology License Agreement (TLA) regarding Cortex-A720, Cortex-A520, and Cortex-M55 processor cores. During the trial, Qualcomm alleged that Arm withheld Arm Compliance Kit verification materials and software patches needed to validate custom CPUs, and disrupted customer negotiations by threatening to terminate its architecture license and leaking the notice in October 2024. Despite the $2 jury award, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika must still decide whether Arm's ALA breach entitles Qualcomm to suspend royalty payments for five years—a ruling that could potentially cost Arm hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in revenue—as well as whether Arm violated its obligation to negotiate future licensing terms in good faith. "We are gratified that the jury found Arm breached its long-standing Architectural License Agreement (ALA) with Qualcomm, failed to honor its commitments, and intentionally acted to disrupt Qualcomm's businesses." — Qualcomm statement