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.

The chip design firm gave a mandated 60-day notice of their cancelation to Qualcomm, Bloomberg reports. Arm claims that when Qualcomm acquired AI chip company Nuvia - which uses the Arm architecture - for $1.4 billion in 2021, it was required to seek Arm's approval to transfer licenses from Nuvia over to Qualcomm.

Any company that makes Arm chips must license technology from Arm Holdings plc, the British company that develops the instruction set. Companies can license the instruction set and create their own CPU designs or license one of Arm's ready-made Cortex CPU core designs to incorporate into their own chips.

Arm has reportedly scrapped its license with Qualcomm, which granted the company the right to design chips based on Arm technology standards.

The two companies are in a legal spat over Qualcomm's acquisition of Nuvia, which uses a form of chip Arm technology.

Tensions between Qualcomm and Arm have been escalating in recent years, and the dispute has now reached a fever pitch. Arm is reportedly moving to cancel Qualcomm's architecture license agreement (ALA),

(Reuters) -Chip firm Arm is cancelling an architectural license agreement that allows Qualcomm to use its intellectual property to design chips, a person familiar with the matter said, amid an ongoing legal battle between the two companies.

Arm sends Qualcomm a 60-day notice of cancellation for an architectural license agreement that—if executed—could throw the chip and smartphone industries into disarray.