as much as i love seeing a company embracing risc-v... why did it have to be qualcomm? they'll just turn it into their own proprietary crap just so they can save money on the arm licenses

I was waiting for this news. Let the games begin.

The day ARM announced their lawsuit against Qualcomm, I said that Qualcomm would switch to RISC-V on the high-end and I still expect them to do so.

Who wants to invest in home grown chip tech just to be told by ARM that they do not like your strategy or that they are not monetizing it enough? RISC-V offers total control over your tech investment strategy.

Qualcomm has not built out the ecosystem in that market yet. They can switch. And longer term, RISC-V is the clear market leader anyway. It will be the better developed ecosystem.

I would expect Snapdragon to stay ARM, but a new RISC-V family can grow beside it.

Apple is too heavily invested in ARM to switch. But most others designing and deploying their own silicon to desktop or server would be better off without ARM.

And RISC-V is already killing it in microcontrollers, automotive, and healthcare.

The place ARM is most entrenched is mobile. That is going to take longer. But if you look at ARMs licensing business model there, there will be a dozen RISC-V players playing the same game against them. That makes it very hard for ARM in the long run. It will be hard to outrun them all.

Sounds like a death knell for RISC-V.