It's the former that Qualcomm has done with Snapdragon X, so the licence cancellation would apply to custom CPU designs, but not to other Qualcomm chips based on Arm CPU core designs. In other words, the cancellation wouldn't mean that Qualcomm couldn't produce any Arm chips at all, just Arm chips with its own in-house CPU core designs.

Qualcomm is the company behind the chips found in smartphones, laptops and many other devices we use daily. But it may soon lose its license to use technology developed by its partner Arm, a move that could have enormous consequences for the tech world.

This "architectural license" agreement has been the cornerstone of the partnership that has kept Android smartphones humming with Qualcomm's cutting-edge processors for years. Now, according to