Qualcomm has notched another courtroom win over Arm Holdings, although the payout is about as small as it gets. A federal jury in Wilmington, Delaware, found on Tuesday that Arm breached its architecture license agreement with Qualcomm, but awarded only $2 in nominal damages.
Even so, the ruling matters more than the dollar figure suggests. Arm shares fell after the verdict came out, while Qualcomm said it was gratified by the outcome. The decision came after jurors failed to reach a verdict on Friday, October 9, following about four hours of deliberations, pushing the result into this week.
The case is the latest chapter in a long and bitter fight between two of the most important names in mobile and computing chips. Qualcomm designs its processors using Arm's computing architecture and holds a license that runs until 2033. In this lawsuit, Qualcomm argued that Arm failed to deliver software patches and design tools it was contractually required to provide. It also claimed Arm broke a promise that Qualcomm would pay within 10% of the lowest price Arm charges for its processor designs, and that Arm tried to undermine Qualcomm's talks with Meta Platforms by leaking a 2024 letter threatening to cancel Qualcomm's license.
Arm, which is controlled by Japan's SoftBank Group, denied breaking the contract. Its lawyers told jurors that Qualcomm had not been harmed at all, framing the lawsuit as a pressure tactic in the middle of a negotiation over licensing terms. The tiny damages award suggests the jury agreed that Arm broke the deal, but was not convinced Qualcomm proved any meaningful financial loss from it.
The bigger stakes sit elsewhere. Qualcomm had been seeking a remedy that could allow it to stop paying royalties to Arm for up to five years, potentially worth billions of dollars. Judge Maryellen Noreika had been weighing whether that clause in the contract is even enforceable. If it's struck down, a breach finding on its own only opens the door to ordinary damages, which Qualcomm would still have to prove. That question will shape how much this verdict is really worth.
The relationship is lopsided in an interesting way. Qualcomm is one of Arm's largest customers, so the fight weighs much more heavily on Arm's income statement than on Qualcomm's. For Arm, a ruling that it broke its contract with a top customer is an uncomfortable headline, regardless of the $2 award, as it heads into future negotiations over newer versions of its architecture.
This is not the first time the two have faced off in the same courtroom. Arm sued Qualcomm in 2022 over Qualcomm's acquisition of chip startup Nuvia, arguing Qualcomm had violated its licenses. A jury sided largely with Qualcomm in December 2024, and the court later entered a final judgment in Qualcomm's favor in September 2025. Tuesday's verdict means Qualcomm has now come out on top in both rounds, even if neither has settled the core question of what their next licensing deal will look like.