Behind giants like Qualcomm, Huawei, and Apple in the mobile communications field lies a profoundly influential British company—ARM. Although it does not directly target consumers, it occupies a crucial position in mobile communication technology, to the extent that it can be said that these industry giants are, in a sense, “working for” ARM.
ARM, short for Advanced RISC Machines, is a semiconductor and software design company headquartered in Cambridge, UK. It focuses on the research and development of chip architectures and instruction sets, licensing these technologies for use by other companies. Through this licensing model, ARM has established a vast partner ecosystem globally, covering almost all well-known chip design and manufacturing companies. Currently, over 99% of smartphone processor chips worldwide are based on ARM architecture. Whether it is Qualcomm’s Snapdragon series, Huawei’s Kirin series, or Apple’s A-series processors, their underlying architecture originates from ARM. This means that these companies must pay ARM patent licensing fees when designing and producing mobile chips. Moreover, chip manufacturers pay ARM royalties based on a certain percentage for every ARM-based chip sold. This is akin to a hidden “landlord” quietly profiting from the sales of every smartphone.
Taking Qualcomm as an example, as one of the largest mobile chip manufacturers in the world, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors hold a significant position in the market. Although Qualcomm invests heavily in chip research and development, and Snapdragon processors are powerful, their core architecture still relies on ARM’s technical support. Qualcomm must pay substantial licensing fees and royalties to ARM to apply ARM architecture in the research and production of Snapdragon processors. Similarly, Huawei’s Kirin processors also adopt ARM’s public architecture. While Huawei continuously innovates in chip design and optimizes ARM architecture, it still needs to adhere to ARM’s licensing agreements and pay fees. Apple has always been at the forefront of chip research and development, with its self-developed A-series processors exhibiting outstanding performance. However, Apple’s A-series processors are also designed based on ARM’s instruction set.
Despite Apple’s deep customization and optimization after obtaining ARM’s authorization, developing a unique processor architecture, it still cannot bypass ARM’s technical licensing and must pay corresponding fees to ARM. The reason ARM can occupy such an important position in mobile communication technology is largely due to its unique business model. By licensing chip architectures and instruction sets for use by other companies, ARM fully leverages global R&D resources, accelerating technological innovation and application. This win-win cooperation model has allowed ARM to rapidly accumulate a large number of technical patents and customer resources in a short time, forming a strong technological barrier and ecological advantage. With the rapid development of mobile internet, the market demand for ARM-based chips has exploded, making ARM an invisible leader in the mobile communication technology field.