In November 2019, Patently Apple posted a report titled “The Mastermind behind Apple’s A-Series Processors is now CEO of a startup called NUVIA aiming to take on Intel and AMD.” Gerard Williams III was Apple’s Senior Director in Platform Architecture responsible for SOC and CPU development. In December 2019 we followed up with a report about Apple suing Williams III for breach of contract.
Today, Qualcomm Inc said it will acquire Nuvia Inc for $1.4 billion, with plans to put the firm’s technology into its smartphone, laptop and automotive processors.
The deal marks a big push by Qualcomm to reestablish a leading position in chip performance after several years of high-profile patent licensing litigation with rival Apple and regulatory authorities.
Founded by three of Apple’s former top semiconductor executives in charge of iPhone chips, Nuvia has been working on a custom CPU core design that it had said would be used in server chips.
Qualcomm, however, plans a broad use of Nuvia’s processors, saying they would power flagship smartphones, next-generation laptops, infotainment systems and driver-assistance systems among other applications.
While laptop makers have traditionally turned to Intel Corp for processors, Qualcomm has been supplying PC chips for several years to firms such as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Microsoft Corp. The addition of Nuvia will greatly enhance Qualcomm’s push into the PC space.
“It’s exciting to see Nuvia join the Qualcomm team,” Panos Panay, Microsoft’s chief product officer, said in a statement on the deal. “Moving forward, we have an incredible opportunity to empower our customers across the Windows ecosystem.”
With Apple’s new M1 processor for Macs providing breakthrough performance, clearly Panos Panay is welcoming a company that has a chance of advancing Qualcomm processors to take on Apple for Surface smartphones, tablets and PCs.
The deal is also significant because it could help lessen Qualcomm’s reliance on Arm Ltd, which is being purchased by Qualcomm rival Nvidia Corp for $40 billion. For more, read the full Reuters report
