China’s Dominance in RISC-V Development: Implications for Android and the Global Chip Market

RISC-V International, a non-profit group promoting RISC-V technology, has over half of its premier members from China, including companies like Alibaba Cloud, Huawei Technologies, and ZTE. Other premier members include Google, Intel, and Qualcomm. Alibaba, Huawei, and Tencent are actively developing chips based on RISC-V, with Alibaba’s Damo Academy expanding its XuanTie series of processors for various applications.

Google recently removed support for RISC-V from the Android kernel, which will impact chip vendors targeting Android systems and devices. However, analysts believe that developers will have to put in extra effort to restore RISC-V support on their own. This change is not expected to have a significant global impact as most companies designing chips around RISC-V are not focusing on Android devices.

Baidu-backed chip maker StarFive Technology is also working on RISC-V-based CPUs and plans to establish a semiconductor research and development lab in Hong Kong. Despite concerns in the US, China continues to contribute significantly to RISC-V development. Companies already invested in RISC-V support for Android are expected to continue their projects although there is still a considerable amount of work ahead.