Today · event date October 13

Jury finds Arm breached Qualcomm deal; judge hasn't ruled

A Delaware jury finds Arm breached its license agreement with Qualcomm and interfered with Qualcomm's Meta business, awarding only US$2; whether Qualcomm can stop paying royalties is still for the judge

Concept illustration: behind a large wooden bench in the center, a man in a dark suit stands holding an open red folder, with a man in a tan suit seated to his left and a woman in a dark jacket seated to his right, and a box lettered "DELAWARE" above them linked by a line pointing down to the standing man. Smaller tables at the left and right each hold a laptop with a chair beneath; a line connects the left laptop to a box lettered "QUALCOMM" beside blue lettering "Qualcomm", and a line connects the right laptop to a box lettered "ARM" beside blue lettering "arm".

Why it matters: Whether Arm's licensing revenue takes a hit depends on two things the judge hasn't ruled on: whether Qualcomm can stop paying royalties and the antitrust case.

Reuters' Tom Hals reported on October 13 that a Delaware jury found Arm breached its license agreement with Qualcomm and intentionally interfered with Qualcomm's business relationship with Meta. The jury awarded US$2 in nominal damages. One breach claim succeeded: "The jury found Arm breached its obligation to provide software patches and tools for its designs". On the other breach claims, Arm prevailed. Whether Qualcomm can stop paying royalties is for the presiding judge to rule on separately. The report says: "The breach finding leaves open the possibility that Noreika could rule that as a result, Qualcomm can stop paying royalties to Arm for five years, potentially worth billions of dollars." (Reuters via WMBD, 2026-10-13)

The two sides' statements point in opposite directions. Qualcomm says the jury found Arm "failed to honor its commitments" (Qualcomm, 2026-10-13). Arm says the jury was "finding for Arm on four claims" (Arm, 2026-10-13). Reuters writes that five other breach claims failed, which doesn't match Arm's four. Neither Reuters nor Arm explains how it counts.

The same case has an antitrust part, which the judge is trying. Our October 12 issue covered that part's trial; what is new today is the jury verdict. The jury found Arm withheld software patches and tools. The antitrust plaintiff alleges Arm withheld verification tools. Our reading: the two point to the same kind of conduct under different legal labels.

Not proven yet: the judge hasn't ruled on whether Qualcomm can stop paying royalties for five years How we checked →

Source and checks

This item ran in the brief of Oct 15, 2026, alongside 18 other items. How we checked it, the quote checks and what was still missing that day are on that issue's How we checked page.

Cite this item

SecondSource (2026). "Jury finds Arm breached Qualcomm deal; judge hasn't ruled." https://secondsource.io/en/news/2026-10-15-3/. Accessed access date.