Qualcomm could be about to lose its license to use Arm designs for its chips — and the consequences could be huge.

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.

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.