Gerald Williams is the second high-profile engineering executive to leave Qualcomm in the last month, following the departure of GPU architect Eric Demers, but analysts who closely follow the chip designer told CRN they don’t think Williams’ departure will have an impact.
Qualcomm has lost the founder and former CEO of Nuvia, a chip startup it acquired about four years ago to focus on custom Arm designs and strengthen its CPU business.
Gerald Williams, Qualcomm’s former senior vice president of engineering, announced in a LinkedIn post on Monday that he was leaving the San Diego, Calif.-based chip design company last month to focus on his family, including “painting houses.”
(Related: Qualcomm loses second channel leader amid Snapdragon X2 PC chip push)
A Qualcomm spokesperson told CRN that the company does not comment on personnel matters.
Williams, a former Apple chip designer, joined Qualcomm in early 2021 through its acquisition of Nuvia. The company’s custom designs for Arm-compatible CPUs have been key to the company’s push into the PC and server markets. The move is part of Qualcomm’s broader efforts to diversify beyond its mobile chipset business.
The executive started Nuvia two years ago while still at Apple, and was accused of breaching his employment contract for recruiting a former colleague to join the company. Apple dropped the lawsuit in 2023.
Williams is the second high-profile engineering executive to leave Qualcomm in the past month, following the departure of GPU architect Eric Demers, but analysts who closely follow the company told CRN they don’t think Williams’ departure will have much of an impact. Demers left the company in mid-January to lead Intel’s data center GPU efforts.
“This was really a successful culmination of the entire Nuvia acquisition,” said Anshel Sugg, principal analyst at Moore Insights and Strategy. “I don’t think his departure is very significant because he wasn’t that involved by the time he left. But I think the acquisition and integration of Nubia was very important and it was important to him to make sure it was successful.”
Qualcomm used a custom Oryon CPU design originally developed by Nuvia for its Snapdragon X processor, which debuted for PCs in 2024, as well as its Dragonwing-IX processor for industrial PCs and the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 for smartphones announced late last year. The company also uses Oryon for its automotive chip platforms, Snapdragon Cockpit Elite and Snapdragon Ride Elite.
Additionally, the company said in a 2024 legal filing that it intends to use Oryon to develop new server CPUs. Qualcomm then confirmed plans to sell server CPUs last year after hiring the chief architect of Intel’s Xeon server chips.
