Qualcomm’s 2021 acquisition of Nuvia has allowed the company to go head-to-head with Apple by designing its own CPUs that boast excellent performance and efficiency. This push has produced chipsets such as the Snapdragon X Elite and Snapdragon X Plus, which will be found in a wide variety of Windows 11 notebooks and is a major leap in what Qualcomm is capable of. But a new report lifts the curtain to another crucial aspect of the motivation behind the purchase — saving $1.4 billion a year in licensing fees to ARM, a detail that Qualcomm CEO Christiano Amon only provided in an active trial.
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Qualcomm CEO Reveals Nuvia Acquisition Was Driven by $1.4B Savings in Annual ARM Licensing Fees
The shift toward acquiring Nuvia was partly motivated by the chance to decrease Qualcomm’s dependence on ARM technology and its costs, Amon said while testifying in a Delaware federal court. Acquired for $1.4 billion, Nuvia provided Qualcomm with the means to create its own, less than 1% of which is ARM tech, Oryon cores, said Nuvia co-founder Gerard Williams.
Another reason for the deal was Qualcomm’s challenge to match Apple’s performance. Qualcomm was left behind by ARM-based designs, so Nuvia was critical to be purchased. With the Snapdragon 8 Elite — which uses custom Oryon cores — Intel’s performance and power usage will get much, much closer to the performance of Apple’s upcoming A18 and A18 Pro chips this year, although more work will still be needed.
In the future, Qualcomm has a more mammoth leap to reach, the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 2, which we expect will be able to run with ARM’s SME (Scalable Matrix Extension), similar to Apple’s M4. Despite initial skepticism from its board about acquiring a company with no experience in the laptop or smartphone sectors, Qualcomm justified the move by projecting significant savings and new market opportunities.
The company plans to challenge Apple further by introducing affordable notebooks powered by its chips, with prices as low as $700. Some models, like ASUS’ Vivobook S15, already align with Qualcomm’s pricing strategy. As the trial continues, updates will follow on any new developments.
