On the third day of the federal contract trial between Qualcomm and Arm, testimony addressed Qualcomm’s reported bid for Arm v10 access and Arm CEO Rene Haas’s forecast that chips would account for two-thirds of Arm’s projected revenue by 2030. Qualcomm reportedly proposed a tiered offer of up to 5% above Arm’s best v10 rate for another licensee; Arm rejected it, according to testimony described in the case.
The Delaware trial began on October 5, 2026. Earlier coverage of Qualcomm’s request to suspend certain Arm royalty payments covers the dispute’s opening stakes.
Arm v10 access and Qualcomm’s reported offer
Qualcomm sought Arm v10 roadmap and framework information as early as 2020, according to documents presented by its lawyers. Lynn Couillard, then Arm’s dedicated Qualcomm account manager, testified that she pursued the requests internally but had no response from Arm to relay to Qualcomm.
The proposed v10 rates were tiered for mobile, data centers, wearables, automotive and compute. Qualcomm’s reported offer went up to 5% above the best rate Arm had granted another licensee, and Arm rejected the proposal.
The older license and the meaning of “unwind”
The 2013 Architecture License Agreement (ALA) reportedly capped royalties at $1.88 per chip for chips with at least five cores. Qualcomm relied on that cap, while Arm argued that the older terms did not reflect the value of modern, higher-core-count processors.
Qualcomm cited internal Arm communications referring to unwinding the ALA. Haas testified that this meant updating royalty rates, not ending architecture licenses.
Arm’s chip forecast and its relationship with Qualcomm
Haas forecast that chips would account for two-thirds of Arm’s projected revenue by 2030, describing the strategy as an expansion into chip production. He also characterized Arm and Qualcomm as mutually dependent and said Arm wanted Qualcomm to succeed in PCs, automotive and data centers.
