In his first interview since taking the position of CEO at Qualcomm Inc, Cristiano Amon spoke with Reuters explaining that, with the acquisition of Nuvia and the expertise acquired therein, Qualcomm could end up with the “best chip on the market”…
I BET YOU COULD LOL. The founders of Nuvia and “expertise acquired therein,” conveniently happen to be three former Apple chip architecture executives who helped design the very same Apple M1 chip they are now competing against. Wat. Is that even legal? Apple didn’t think so.
Back in 2019, when former lead chip architect at Apple, Gerald Williams, left the company to form his own startup with two other former Apple chip architecture executives, John Bruno and Manu Gulati, called Nuvia Inc., Apple was…let’s just say, not too happy. “How unhappy,” you ask? A lawsuit amount of unhappy.
According to the newly formed trio, their true goal at the time was to compete with Intel and AMD. Apple called bullsh*t and argued in a lawsuit, Apple Inc. vs Gerald Williams III, that their true intention was to force Apple to acquire the company, effectively buying back its own tech.
While I can’t seem to find a resolution on that case as it appears to be ongoing, that didn’t seem to stop Williams who turned right around and filed a counterclaim on the tech giant who claimed that Apple was doing the same thing to his startup, Nuvia Inc., that the iPhone maker was suing him about.
To complicate matters further, as both cases remained ongoing, Qualcomm buys Nuvia for $1.4 billion on January 13, 2021, shortly after tensions ease when Apple and Qualcomm both agree to drop all litigation over patent royalties in 2019.
That brings us up to speed and back to the Reuters interview with CEO of Qualcomm, Cristiano Amon, who stated on Thursday that he believes his company can have the best chip on the market, with help from a team of chip architects who formerly worked on the Apple chip but now work at Qualcomm. His plan B? Licensing from Arm.
“We needed to have the leading performance for a battery-powered device. If Arm, which we’ve had a relationship with for years, eventually develops a CPU that’s better than what we can build ourselves, then we always have the option to license from Arm
– Cristiano Amon
Pending any further Apple lawsuits, I BET YOU COULD!
