(Reuters) – China plans to issue guidance to encourage the use of open-source RISC-V chips nationwide for the first time, two sources briefed on the matter said, as Beijing accelerates efforts to curb the country’s dependence on Western-owned technology.
The policy guidance on boosting the use of RISC-V chips could be released as soon as this month, although the final date could change, the sources said.
It is being drafted jointly by eight government bodies, including the Cyberspace Administration of China, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the China National Intellectual Property Administration, they added.
The sources declined to be named as the policy discussions were still underway. The four ministries did not respond to requests for comment.
Shares in several Chinese chip design firms jumped during aternoon trading, with the CSI All-Share Semiconductor Products and Equipment Index (.CSIH30184), opens new tab reversing early losses to rise by as much as 2.5%.
VeriSilicon (688521.SS), opens new tab rose by the daily 10% limit, while ASR Microelectronics (688220.SS), opens new tab, Shanghai Anlogic Infotech (688107.SS), opens new tab, and 3Peak (688536.SS), opens new tab gained between 8.6% and 15.4%.
RISC-V is an open-source technology that is used to design a range of less-sophisticated chips, from those in smartphones to CPUs for artificial intelligence servers.
It competes globally with proprietary and more commonly used chip architecture technology including x86, dominated by U.S. firms Intel (INTC.O), opens new tab and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O), opens new tab, and Arm, developed by SoftBank Group-owned Arm Holdings (9984.T), opens new tab.
LOWER COSTS ATTRACT CHIP DESIGNERS
In China, state entities and research institutes have eagerly embraced RISC-V in recent years, seeing it as geopolitically neutral. Chinese chip designers are attracted by its lower costs, but the government has yet to mention it in policy.
Its widening use in the country has been greeted warily in the United States, as friction between Washington and Beijing intensifies – especially over technology.
In 2023, Reuters reported that some U.S. lawmakers were putting pressure on the Biden administration to restrict American companies from working on the technology over concerns that Beijing was exploiting its open-source nature to advance its own semiconductor industry.
China’s largest for-profit RISC-V intellectual property providers include Alibaba’s (9988.HK), opens new tab XuanTie and startup Nuclei System Technology, which sell commercial RISC-V processors to chip designers.
Industry executives at an event focused on RISC-V that was organised by XuanTie last week said the popularity of DeepSeek could also boost adoption of RISC-V, as the Chinese AI startup’s models run efficiently on less powerful chips.
Smaller companies that want to use AI and DeepSeek could turn to chips designed with RISC-V’s architecture, said Sun Haitao, a manager at China Mobile System Integration, an ICT equipment provider.
“Even if a RISC-V solution priced at 10 million yuan might only reach about 30% of the level of NVIDIA or Huawei, buying three sets means the overall cost might still be lower,” he said during the event. “I think this is a breakthrough point.”