I don't think Qualcomm will be buying IP from anybody else apart...

I don't think Qualcomm will be buying IP from anybody else apart from BRN direct. Qualcomm pay ARM 20-30c per chip royalty.

Qualcomm are ruthless & negotiate the lowest royalty. They have done the same with ARM.

Qualcomm acquired Nuvia who were on a separate licence agreement with ARM. Qualcomm tried to use their licence agreement with ARM to pay lower royalties on Nuvia chips & are now being sued by ARM.

It all started when Qualcomm announced and finally acquired processor design startup Nuvia in 2021. Nuvia was developing a new CPU architecture that it claims is superior to anything in the market. Qualcomm has publicly stated that it will use Nuvia designs and the team for its entire portfolio, including smartphones, tablets, PCs, Automotive, IoT and others.

Nuvia's designs run Arm's instruction set. It had an Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) license from Arm, with certain licensing fees. This license is also known as Architecture License Agreement (ALA) in legal documents. Since Qualcomm also has an ALA with Arm, with a different licensing fee structure, there is a difference of opinion between Qualcomm and Arm on which contract should apply to Nuvia's current designs and its evolutions.

According to the court documents, the discussions between Qualcomm and Arm broke down, and unexpectedly, Arm unilaterally cancelled Nuvia's ALA and asked it to destroy all its designs. It even demanded Qualcomm not to use Nuvia engineers for any CPU designs for three years. Arm officially filed the case against Qualcomm on August 31, 2022.

Qualcomm has both ALA and Technology License Agreement (TLA) with Arm. The former is required if you are using only Arm's instruction set, and the latter if you use cores designed by Arm. TLA fees are magnitudes higher than ALA. Qualcomm currently uses Arm cores and TLA licensing. According to Strategy Analytics analyst Sravan Kundojjala, it pays an estimated 20 – 30 cents per chip to Arm.

Since Qualcomm negotiated the contract years ago, its ALA rate is probably very low. So, if Qualcomm adopts Nuvia designs for its entire portfolio, it will only pay this lower ALA fee to Arm. For Arm, that puts all the revenue coming from Qualcomm at risk. That is problematic for Arm, especially when it is getting ready for its IPO.

With the Nuvia acquisition, Arm saw an opportunity to renegotiate Qualcomm's licensing contract. Moreover, Nuvia's ALA rate must be much higher than Qualcomm's. That is because of two reasons. First, Nuvia was a startup with little negotiation leverage. And second, it was designing higher-priced, low-volume chips, whereas Qualcomm primarily sells lower-priced, high-volume chips. So, it is in Arm's favor to insist Qualcomm pay Nuvia's rate. But Qualcomm disagrees, as it thinks its ALA covers Nuvia designs.

https://www.fiercewireless.com/5g/qualcomm-arm-legal-spat-regarding-nuvia-becomes-more-bitter