T-Mobile sues Broadcom over VMware license support, moving tens of thousands of virtual machines
U.S. telecom T-Mobile has sued Broadcom in a New York court, seeking to compel continued support for its VMware perpetual licenses while undertaking a massive migration away from VMware.
T-Mobile is asking a New York court to rule that Broadcom was contractually obligated to continue supporting its VMware perpetual licenses. In its complaint, T-Mobile said it has tens of thousands of virtual machines using VMware software across approximately 303,140 CPU cores. It also said that it was migrating off VMware but noted the time-consuming and technical challenges involved in migrating over 1,000 applications.
The lawsuit, first reported by The Register, was filed in August 2025 in the Supreme Court of the State of New York. The mobile company claimed that in 2023, it bought perpetual VMware licenses, plus two years of support with the option to buy a third year. But after Broadcom bought VMware, it stopped sales of VMware perpetual licenses in favor of subscriptions and started bundling VMware products into a few, more expensive bundles.
When T-Mobile tried to extend support for a third year for $5,288,398.45, Broadcom refused. According to an August 2025 filing, a Broadcom representative reportedly told T-Mobile via email: "Broadcom announced end of availability of all perpetual products, which includes Stated Out Year Renewals for perpetual support." A judge granted T-Mobile an injunction allowing it to receive support services from October 2025 through August 3, 2026, for $5.28 million, plus the posting of a $500,000 undertaking. Now, T-Mobile seeks a declaration that it was entitled to renew support services and further relief as the court deems necessary.
