Since Qualcomm now bought NXP is there any future for the i.MX-SOCs?
I fear they will simply drop any new soc like the i.MX8 and might cut the rope on other products-line as soon as possible.
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i.MX is a freescale in the first place. NXP bought freescale couple years ago. now qualcomm bought nxp. this is life. it will be fairly stupid to write off several years of R&D from qualcomm perspective. but who knows, of course they can. Even without acquisition nxp could have buried i.MX in favour of own arm line. and before that freescale themselves could have declared the line as non-profitable and write it off.
Sorry for such a long discourse, i just cannot find my crystal ball.
Technically, from what I read the purchase is not effective yet, the EU commission gave clearance, China is still missing.
This is bad news for the semiconductor landscape diversity indeed.
As long as there is licensing revenue to be generated i cant think of a good reason to kill a chip off. Also, do not forget that Qualcom is essentially “fabless” the majority of Qualcoms revenw is generated from licensing.
I don’t think Qualcomm is keeping the competition alive in their very own house.
What are the future risks, if the chips will delivered by NXP, but maintained by Qualcomm? What are the alternatives for i.MX8 as i.MX6 is technically not attractive?
While there is a likelyhood that there will not be a successor to the i.MX8, I think it’s unlikely that they will (or even can, due to contracts?) cancel a chip they just publicly announced. In a few months (if not already), Purism should have a frame contract that guarantees them the availability of the chip.
So, for the Librem 5 v2 (or …v6) they might have to look for alternatives. But they might want to do that anyway. And the more Librem 5 are sold until then, the more leverage Purism has to get a chip that is even more aligned to their believes. Therefore, I think the most important thing in that regard is: How many units can be ordered / sold?
Currently, 3260 are ordered, +2 every day (very linear during the past 3 months). I expect that rate will go up when we get closer to delivery and they can order 5000+ devices. 10,000 would be awesome 
The closer we get to 6-digit numbers (over time), the less we need to worry about the future.
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A bit off topic here, but I ordered mine with Monero and… the transaction was incredibly fast!
I’m grateful to Purism to offer a way to spend my Moneroj, this gives it a meaning as an actual currency, not as a speculative asset 
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Recipe is simple:
1.Request the price for i.MX8M GDSII and/or HDL files from NXP. (IC package design files too)
2.Start crowdfunding for required amount of money and successfully finish it
3.Buy the files
4.Publish this files to public domain
Result: Anyone can order production of i.MX8M ICs. Community can audit design for vulnerabilities and patch it.
Stage 2 : Start crowdfunding for I.MX8M IC production…
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