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Qualcomm has won its prolonged dispute against British chipmaker Arm, which accused the Snapdragon manufacturer of breaching a license for its chip technology, Reuters reports.

Arm had accused Qualcomm of breaching the terms of its licensing agreement after it acquired startup Nuvia Inc. for $1.4 billion in 2021. However, the jury in a Delaware federal court decided that Qualcomm didn't violate the terms of its licensing agreement with Arm after using the technology in Nuvia's chips without paying a higher licensing rate. The jurors, however, were unable to reach a unanimous decision.

Arm doesn't actually manufacture any chips itself. Instead, it creates designs for chips (and the code needed to use them), which it licenses to third-party manufacturers like Qualcomm. Many Qualcomm chips, like the Snapdragon range, are based on Arm's technology and are used by some of the world's most popular smartphone manufacturers, including many smartphones from Samsung, Huawei, and Redmi.

However, the judge presiding over the case, US District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika, highlighted that the outcome was ambiguous.

"I don't think either side had a clear victory or would have had a clear victory if this case is tried again," Noreika said, according to Reuters.

The case had severely escalated since it was first filed in 2022. In November 2024, Arm sent Qualcomm a 60-day cancellation notice for an architectural license agreement, which allowed Qualcomm to create chips based on standards owned by Arm. This could have been highly disruptive for the smartphone industry if enforced by the court.

Qualcomm said it was "pleased" with the decision in an official statement.

"The jury has vindicated Qualcomm's right to innovate and affirmed that all the Qualcomm products at issue in the case are protected by Qualcomm's contract with ARM," said the company. "We will continue to develop performance-leading, world class products that benefit consumers worldwide, with our incredible Oryon ARM-compliant custom CPUs."

Arm has not issued an official statement on the court's decision as of this writing.

The news comes after Qualcomm announced its latest system-on-chip, the Snapdragon 8 Elite, back in October. Its Oryon CPU is based on Qualcomm's own chip designs, instead of the ARM Cortex designs of previous Snapdragons.