As reported by Arstechina, Qualcomm announced a major acquisition on 14th January, 2021 to buy Nuvia for 1.4 billion. Nuvia was founded in 2019 by three former Apple semiconductor executives and it has been developing custom CPU core design for servers. But seems like Qualcomm sees applications for Nuvia’s tech beyond servers.

Qualcomm intends to use Nuvia’s technology in future chip designs for a wide range of devices from phones to cars. On a press release, Qualcomm said Nuvia will deliver “step-function improvements in CPU performance and power efficiency to meet the demands of next-generation 5G computing.” They plan to use Nuvia’s technology on “flagship smartphones, next-generation laptops, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, and extended reality and infrastructure networking solutions.”

Nuvia's chips are based on the ARM architecture but not fully licensed by ARM. This will allow Qualcomm to achieve better margins while developing chips that could help it compete with Apple's chips more directly. As per the reports, the acquisition is mainly about acquiring intellectual property and also states that Nuvia’s founders and their employees will join Qualcomm.