Adafruit: Arduino’s Rules Are ‘Incompatible With Open Source’
Arduino has defended the changes, claiming its commitment to open source hardware remains unchanged.
Dec 14th, 2025 6:00am by David Cassel
The open source hardware community is debating Arduino’s new Terms and Conditions following the company’s acquisition by Qualcomm.
Chief microcontroller rival Adafruit has argued that the new terms threaten open principles by restricting reverse engineering of cloud tools, asserting perpetual licenses over user uploads and implementing broad monitoring for AI-related features.
Arduino has defended the changes, claiming restrictions only apply to its SaaS cloud applications, that data handling is standard for modern platforms, and its commitment to open source hardware remains unchanged.
Last week, I spoke to Arduino, Adafruit and the EFF about Qualcomm’s October acquisition of the beloved company known for its single-board microcontroller kits.
Many criticisms came from rival Adafruit, whose products include Arduino-compatible hardware kits. In late November, Adafruit’s Managing Editor Phillip Torrone had warned its 36,000+ followers on LinkedIn that (among other things) Arduino’s users were now “explicitly forbidden from reverse engineering or even attempting to understand how the platform works unless Arduino gives permission.”
