In brief: China is making a major push for RISC-V processor designs as it intensifies efforts to reduce reliance on Western semiconductor technology. New government policies appear to be shifting the focus away from x86 and Arm chips in favor of processors built on the open-source instruction set.
The initiative has been drafted by a coalition of eight government agencies, including key players such as the Cyberspace Administration of China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the China National Intellectual Property Administration.
According to Reuters, which cites anonymous sources, the policy guidance could be released as early as this month. Once enacted, it would mark China's first official national policy in support of RISC-V.
For China, the primary advantage of RISC-V is its open-source nature, which makes it free from what the government perceives as Western control. Anyone can develop or implement the architecture without paying licensing fees to US or European companies. This aligns with China's broader push for technological self-sufficiency amid escalating tensions with the US.
Several major Chinese firms have already made significant investments in RISC-V, including Alibaba's XuanTie division and startup Nuclei System Technology, both of which develop commercial RISC-V processor IP. The long-term goal is to build a fully developed RISC-V ecosystem that could eventually lead to domestically produced RISC-V processors for AI and other high-performance applications.
Of course, achieving this is easier said than done. While the RISC-V instruction set architecture itself is open-source, developing a complete software ecosystem – including operating systems, developer tools, and libraries – is a massive undertaking. In this regard, Arm and x86 have decades of an advantage.
Fortunately for China, some US firms are also contributing to RISC-V development. One example is modular laptop maker Framework Computer, which recently launched an affordable RISC-V laptop mainboard aimed at accelerating software development for the architecture.
RISC-V's cost-effectiveness is also attracting interest from smaller AI startups. According to Reuters, at a recent event organized by XuanTie, industry experts discussed how lower-cost, less powerful RISC-V chips running AI models like DeepSeek could serve as an alternative to Nvidia silicon for certain AI applications.
Naturally, these developments have raised concerns among US officials. There is growing apprehension that China could exploit RISC-V's open nature to rapidly advance its semiconductor capabilities. In 2023, lawmakers urged the Biden administration to impose restrictions on US companies working on RISC-V due to these national security concerns.
China ramps up homegrown RISC-V push to break free from x86 and Arm
