Qualcomm's massive Snapdragon chip empire could be under threat with Arm Holdings PLC killing their partnership with the firm.

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.

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

In a move that could profoundly affect an already beleaguered global supply chain, Arm has reportedly issued Qualcomm a 60-day notice of cancelation for

Arm Ltd has reportedly cancelled a license granted to Qualcomm to design chips based on its technology, possibly throwing the mobile market into a state of disarray. The report states Arm has given Qualcomm a 60-day notice of the cancellation,

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

Arm and Qualcomm have been in a war for quite a while now over Qualcomm's Oryon cores. These cores are used in the Snapdragon X series and, now, the Snapdragon 8 Elite. To give a brief overview of the situation,