China to Issue Guidance Boosting Open-Source RISC-V Chips

China is reportedly preparing to release new guidance aimed at promoting the use of open-source RISC-V chips, according to Reuters. This policy, expected to be released as early as this month, represents a significant step in Beijing's efforts to reduce its reliance on Western technology.

The policy is being jointly drafted by eight government bodies, including 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.

This initiative follows a recent trend of Chinese entities and research institutes embracing RISC-V technology, viewing it as geopolitically neutral and offering lower costs compared to proprietary chip architectures like x86 and Arm.

The planned policy has already elicited a positive response from Chinese chip design firms. Shares in several companies, including VeriSilicon, ASR Microelectronics, Shanghai Anlogic Infotech, and 3Peak, saw significant gains following news reports of the impending guidance.

RISC-V is an open-source technology used to design a wide range of chips, from those used in smartphones to CPUs for artificial intelligence servers. Its key advantage lies in its lower cost, making it an attractive option for Chinese chip designers seeking to reduce their dependence on Western-dominated chip technologies.

However, the increasing adoption of RISC-V in China has raised concerns in the United States. Some US lawmakers have expressed concerns that Beijing is exploiting the open-source nature of RISC-V to advance its own semiconductor industry, leading to calls for restrictions on US companies collaborating on this technology.

Despite these concerns, RISC-V continues to gain traction in China. Major players like Alibaba's XuanTie and startup Nuclei System Technology are selling commercial RISC-V processors to chip designers, while AI startup DeepSeek's efficient operation on less powerful chips is also driving adoption.

Sun Haitao, a manager at China Mobile System Integration, highlighted the potential cost savings associated with using RISC-V chips, stating that while a RISC-V solution might cost only 30% of a comparable NVIDIA or Huawei chip, purchasing multiple units could still make it a more cost-effective option.