RISC-V is a shifting but consistently growing ecosystem – particularly in Europe

Although RISC-V started life over 15 years ago, its prominence and the magnitude of its potential threat to proprietary ISAs has only been truly appreciated in the last five years.

However, as any technology surrounded by such ‘hype’, the companies driving the evolution of RISC-V have had varying degrees of success. In 2025, we have seen some of the proponents of RISC-V fail, be put up for sale, or even floundered. Should we take this as a sign that RISC-V has run its course and is of no threat to proprietary ISAs?

Two changes could be said to have rocked the RISC-V boat in the last few weeks: Codasip is up for sale and MIPS, having refocused on RISC-V in 2022, has (once again) been sold off – this time to Global Foundries, quoting ‘difficulties for private RISC-V companies’.

A year and a half ago (March 2024), I compiled a RISC-V report for one of our customers. My assessment at the time was (to paraphrase myself): “The emerging market of RISC-V IP is projected to grow fast, but it is already highly competitive market. The classical royalty-based business model has traditionally dominated the processor IP market but this is now increasingly questioned by customers. The market is already flush, with several RISC-V IP providers which face strong headwinds –  most likely not all of them will survive.”

The Codasip situation is regrettable, but we don’t subscribe to the EETimes suggestion that it signifies ‘a pivotal moment for EU RISC-V Sovereignty’, nor is it “a crucial test for the European Union’s ambitious goal of achieving digital strategic autonomy, as enshrined in the European Chips Act”.

If the EU’s RISC-V sovereignty is dependent on a single company, it would suggest a serious misstep in its strategic planning. At the end of the day, the Codasip technology and/or the business model appears to have simply failed to sufficiently convince its customers. That is nothing unusual in this industry!

In terms of the outlook for RISC-V, it has already been chipping away at the volume of Arm processors used in each design. That shift is only likely to favor RISC-V. The willingness to adopt RISC-V specifically holds true for design-starts. And the MIPS acquisition by Global Foundries demonstrates what’s likely to become another important trend: foundries and major EDA vendors will benefit by broadening the supply chain for RISC-V, and this will apply extra pressure on Arm.

We have never positioned ourselves as a traditional IP provider – MINRES is not dependent on traditional IP business models. We focus on subsystem solutions, addresses niche markets and uses innovative future-oriented business models. This approach has made MINRES resilient to the expected and current market movements. Any market changes/consolidations in RISC-V will only have a positive impact on our future.