Contrary to US sanctions, China's semiconductor technology is developing rapidly, and it is reported that the Chinese government is urging Alibaba and Tencent to develop RISC-V chips

The United States has imposed economic sanctions on China, banning the export of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. Meanwhile, it was reported that the Chinese government is urging Alibaba and Tencent to develop chips using the open source instruction set architecture `` RISC-V ''.

Alibaba, Tencent enlisted to help China build RISC-V chips • The Register
https://www.theregister.com/2022/12/01/alibaba_tencent_china_riscv/

China's chip industry fights to survive US tech crackdown - Nikkei Asia
https://asia.nikkei.com/Spotlight/The-Big-Story/China-s-chip-industry-fights-to-survive-US-tech-crackdown

Most of the CPUs developed by Intel and AMD for PCs use the x86 instruction set architecture, and CPUs for smartphones use the Arm architecture. When developing a CPU using an architecture such as x86 or Arm, it was necessary to pay a large license fee, so there was a high barrier to new entry into the CPU market. On the other hand, RISC-V is an open source instruction set architecture that allows you to participate in development without paying a license fee. For this reason, RISC-V is expected to be a technology that will bring about major changes in the semiconductor industry.

RISC-V is expected to be a technological innovation since 'Moore's Law' - GIGAZINE

Regarding such RISC-V, it was reported that the Chinese government is urging Alibaba and Tencent to develop RISC-V chips in order to reduce the impact of sanctions from the United States. According to reports, China is rushing to develop chips that will replace chips that use the Arm architecture. The Arm architecture is an architecture developed by Arm based in the United Kingdom, but since the parent company Softbank aims to list Arm in the United States, there is concern that the Arm architecture will be affected by sanctions in the future. It is said that

Regarding the report that the Chinese government is promoting the development of RISC-V, engineer and investor Eric Slesinger said, ``The RISC-V project will be hard forked, and innovation will be stagnant.'' ``RISC-V like SiFive It points out the possibility of adverse effects such as sanctions affecting development companies. On the other hand, Slesinger said it could benefit European-based RISC-V developers such as Codasip .

This type of RISC-V mandate likely leads to:

1. A hard fork in the RISC-V ecosystem (self-defeating because it suffocates innovation)

2. US pressure/controls on @SiFive (US based, backed by Sutter Hill)

3. Benefit to European players like @Codasip https://t.co/5PVHRsg4pj

— Eric Slesinger (@ericsles) November 30, 2022

As mentioned above, the United States has imposed sanctions on China, such as an embargo on semiconductor manufacturing equipment. However, according to Nikkei Asia, although the domestic share of Chinese semiconductors was less than 15% in 2018, the share increased to 24% in 2021 after sanctions. In addition, it has been reported that the Chinese semiconductor manufacturer 'SMIC' has succeeded in mass-producing 7nm chips, which even Intel struggled to mass-produce, pointing out that China's semiconductor technology is progressing rapidly. I'm here.

It turns out that the Chinese semiconductor maker 'SMIC' is mass-producing 7 nm chips that even Intel struggled with, and is rapidly growing into the world's third largest foundry - GIGAZINE