RISC-V is a popular technology in China, where over 300 companies are using it. These companies include major tech players like Alibaba Cloud, Huawei Technologies, and ZTE. In fact, half of the premier members of RISC-V International come from China. While Google has recently removed support for RISC-V from the Android kernel, analysts believe that developers will have to put in extra effort to restore it on their own. However, 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.
Alibaba, Huawei, and Tencent are actively developing chips based on RISC-V. Alibaba’s Damo Academy has expanded its XuanTie series of processors for various applications. StarFive Technology, which is backed by Baidu, 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.