Not long ago, RISC-V was more of a curiosity—a niche topic in semiconductor circles that sparked interest, but not urgency. That’s no longer the case. Today, RISC-V is starting to look less like a fringe alternative and more like a strategic necessity—especially in China.
Over the past year, I’ve kept a close eye on the RISC-V ecosystem, and one thing is clear: China’s momentum is real. While the U.S. and Europe are still weighing the risks and rewards, China is already scaling up, integrating RISC-V into real-world use cases, and making it a national priority. The question now isn’t if RISC-V will take off—it’s who will take the lead, and how fast?
Why China Is Going All-In
China doesn’t really have a choice. With tighter export controls around proprietary architectures like x86 and Arm, the country needs an alternative—and RISC-V fits that role well. It’s not just a technological decision, it’s a strategic one.
One point that often comes up in conversations is the misunderstanding around RISC-V being “open source.” It is not. As my colleague Scott Bambrough our Head of Engineering, put it perfectly:
” RISC-V isn’t open source, its instruction set (ISA) is an open standard that you can extend. This lets anyone develop a silicon architecture that can interpret the ISA and build a CPU to perform computation. There are a host of companies doing that in the RISC-V space. Arm’s ISA is a proprietary standard that Arm does not let you deviate from.
RISC-V Momentum: China’s Urgency vs. the West’s Caution
Just look at the policy moves: Reuters reported that China is planning nationwide efforts to push RISC-V adoption across industries. And from what I’ve personally seen, the pace is intense.
Last year, I had the chance to attend all three major RISC-V International summits—Europe, China, and North America. What struck me most was how different they felt. The China summit had a scale and energy that was hard to ignore. Students, startups, big tech, government-backed labs—everyone was there, and everyone is building.
The European and U.S. events were more low-key. Insightful, sure. Serious, no doubt. But they lacked the sense of urgency and coordination that was so palpable in China.
China’s RISC-V Strategy: Open Collaboration Meets Silicon Challenges
China’s push for RISC-V adoption isn’t just about technological independence—it’s about leveraging global contributions to accelerate progress. As Scott put it:
“Why is this important to China? They can benefit from worldwide contributions to software ported to run on RISC-V. If this was a China-only endeavor, they would have to do this all themselves, and it is a big job.”
While China is making significant investments in silicon architecture for RISC-V—often through proprietary and licensed efforts—Scott emphasized that this is a necessary step for the country to build its own CPU and MCU industry.
“You see this in the government-funded chip designs,” he explained. “China needs to make these investments themselves to develop their own industry.”
However, there’s a critical challenge that RISC-V alone cannot solve: semiconductor manufacturing restrictions.
“One problem RISC-V can’t solve for China is the ability to manufacture higher-density chips—this technology is restricted. This prevents them from miniaturizing their silicon architectures more effectively.”
As China pushes forward, the balance between open collaboration and domestic investment remains at the heart of its RISC-V strategy.
RISC-V: A Global Race, A Shared Responsibility
Still, this isn’t a race that one country can—or should—run alone. RISC-V is a global open standard, and some of the most important contributions will come from collaboration across borders.
As the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation put it:
“RISC-V is an open standard and has incorporated meaningful contributions from all over the world.”
And that’s the key. There’s still an open lane for companies outside China to step up—especially in areas like compilers, OS integration, and hardware security. But time is not infinite. Sitting back and watching isn’t a strategy anymore.
So, What Comes Next?
That’s the exciting part. The ending hasn’t been written yet—it’s being shaped by the engineers, companies, and communities willing to roll up their sleeves and build.
At RISCstar Solutions, we’re not just watching this space—we’re in it. If you’re curious, if you’re building, if you’re ready to collaborate—we’d love to talk.
Let’s shape what comes next. Together.
