But the fact Qualcomm is also the world’s largest mobile chip supplier, and still counts Apple as one of its largest customers, throws a unique wrinkle into this battle — one that, depending on how the dispute unfolds, could work greatly to Intel’s Just three days after the U.S. FTC filed an antitrust suit against Qualcomm that alleged the company had a 5-year modem exclusivity deal with Apple that featured patent royalty rebates, Apple has announced it’s suing Qualcomm for allegedly withholding close to $1 billion in rebates as retaliation for cooperating with South Korean regulators in their own Qualcomm probe. Last month, South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission fined Qualcomm $853 million for several alleged practices.