RISC-V 2026 Update

Why It Matters

RISC‑V’s growing market share, corporate backing, and standardized software stack signal a shift toward open, vendor‑agnostic hardware that could reshape computing across data centers, AI, and automotive sectors.

Key Takeaways

• RISC‑V projected to capture 33.7% market share by 2031.
• Meta and Qualcomm acquisitions accelerate RISC‑V server and AI chips.
• RVA23 profile enables binary‑compatible RISC‑V processors across OSes.
• Automotive adopts RISC‑V for scalable, vendor‑agnostic zonal architectures.
• New RISC‑V silicon like Space‑K3 targets AI, edge, and data‑center markets.

Summary

The video provides the 2026 RISC‑V annual review, highlighting the open‑source ISA’s rapid expansion beyond microcontrollers into cloud servers, AI accelerators, and automotive systems. It notes that SHD forecasts RISC‑V will reach 33.7% market penetration by 2031, up from 2.5% in 2021, and that over 35 billion SOCs could ship with a RISC‑V core. Key developments include Meta’s acquisition of Revos and Qualcomm’s purchase of Ventana, both bolstering in‑house RISC‑V silicon for AI and data‑center workloads. The RVA23 profile, ratified in 2024, establishes binary compatibility for modern application processors, prompting OS vendors like Canonical, Red Hat, and Nvidia to target it as a single build target. Automotive gains from RISC‑V’s scalable ISA, enabling a single programming model from ECUs to central compute and reducing vendor lock‑in. CEO Andre Gallo emphasizes that RISC‑V’s vector and upcoming matrix extensions make it “AI‑native,” allowing a unified compute stack without costly DMA transfers. He also highlights the community‑driven learning path, citing a free browser‑based RISC‑V core design course that has attracted over 700 students in Austria. The ecosystem’s momentum suggests broader adoption across cloud, edge, and automotive markets, with new silicon such as Space‑K3 and Alibaba’s Zante C950 promising competitive performance. Expanding Linux support and the RISE software initiative further lower barriers for developers, positioning RISC‑V as a viable alternative to ARM and x86 in the coming decade.

Original Description

RISC-V annual review, including RVA23 silicon, AI, RISC-V in automotive, and an interview with RISC-V International CEO Andrea Gallo.

If you like this video, you may also be interested in the following ExplainingComputers episodes:

"Why RISC-V Matters": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TmHSsIU1ns

"RISC-V 2025 Update": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9s8hPmCZ0mk

"RISC-V 2024 Update": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6mPK3QCrBo

"DC-ROMA RISC-V Laptop II": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mhd98AGNXQ

"Milk-V Jupiter RISC-V PC Build": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX9Pz1TmEww

And you can find all of the ExplainingComputers RISC-V videos on this page: https://explainingcomputers.com/riscv_videos.html

KEY REFERENCES

RISC-V International Annual Report: https://riscv.org/about/annual-report/

“Building a RISC-V Core” and other free training courses: https://riscv.org/community/training/

FULL REFERENCES BY VIDEO SEGMENT

INTRO:

Scaleaway RISC-V cloud services: https://labs.scaleway.com/en/em-rv1/

RISC-V PROGRESS:

SHD Group predictions: https://static.sched.com/hosted_files/riscvsummit2025/44/Richard.pdf

Meta acquires Rivos: https://www.lw.com/en/news/latham-watkins-advises-meta-in-acquisition-of-rivos

Qualcomm acquires Ventana: https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2025/12/qualcomm-acquires-ventana-micro-systems--deepening-risc-v-cpu-ex

Arm stock falls following Qualcomm Ventana purchase: https://www.techradar.com/pro/arm-sheds-billions-in-market-capitalization-after-qualcomm-hints-at-risc-v-adoption-with-ventara-micro-acquisition

First RISC-V International annual report: https://riscv.org/about/annual-report/

RISC-V on path for ISO: https://riscv.org/blog/risc-v-jtc1-pas-submitter/

RISC-V & AI:

Meta MTIA v1: https://ai.meta.com/blog/meta-training-inference-accelerator-AI-MTIA/

Meta MTAI March 2026: https://ai.meta.com/blog/meta-mtia-scale-ai-chips-for-billions/

SiFive Intelligence Family Second Generation: https://www.sifive.com/press/new-x100-series-second-gen-intelligence-family

Semidynamics: https://semidynamics.com/ai-systems

Esperanto Generative AI Appliance: https://www.esperanto.ai/products/

Google Coral NPU: https://developers.google.com/coral/guides/architecture

RVA23 SILICON:

RVA23 Ratified: https://riscv.org/blog/risc-v-announces-ratification-of-the-rva23-profile-standard/

Spacemit K3: https://www.spacemit.com/products/keystone/k3

Akeana RVA23 tapeout: https://www.akeana.com/akeana-tapes-out-highest-performance-rva23-alpine-test-chip/

Tenstorrent Ascalon availability: https://tenstorrent.com/vision/tenstorrent-announces-availability-of-tt-ascalon

Spacemit: https://www.spacemit.com/

K3 datasheet: https://cdn-resource.spacemit.com/file/chip/K3/K3_brief_en.pdf

Milk-V Jupiter-II: https://milkv.io/jupiter2

DC Roma RISC-V Laptop Mainboard III: https://deepcomputing.io/dc-roma-risc-v-mainboard-iii-unveiled-at-fosdem-powered-by-spacemit-k3-for-framework-laptop-13/

Tenstorrent Ascalon X datasheet: https://cdn.sanity.io/files/jpb4ed5r/production/ffe5aee223d2bd8c4d44611a902ff62a5474e122.pdf

T-Head C950: https://www.xrvm.cn/product/xuantie/C950

C950 Datasheet: https://regmedia.co.uk/2026/03/25/supplied_xuantie_c950_spec_sheet.pdf

RISC-V & LINUX:

RISE Project: https://riseproject.dev/

Ubuntu RISC-V: https://ubuntu.com/blog/tag/risc-v

Red Hat RISC-V: https://developers.redhat.com/products/rhel-riscv

Debian RISC-V: https://wiki.debian.org/RISC-V

Fedora RISC-V: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Architectures/RISC-V

OpenSUSE RISC-V: https://en.opensuse.org/openSUSE:RISC-V

Arch Linux RISC-V: https://archriscv.felixc.at/

Bianbu OS: https://www.spacemit.com/community/document/info?lang=zh&nodepath=software/SDK/bianbu/root_overview.md

RISC-V, RISE & Yocto: https://riscv.org/blog/risc-v-international-and-the-rise-project-join-forces-for-yocto-project-support

Yocto Project: https://www.yoctoproject.org/

More videos on computing and related topics can be found at:

http://www.youtube.com/@ExplainingComputers

And more videos on film and other making, plus retro tech, can be found on my Christopher Barnatt channel: http://www.youtube.com/@ChristopherBarnatt

Chapters:

00:00 Titles & Intro

01:46 RISC-V Progress

04:24 RISC-V in Automotive

07:23 RISC-V & AI

10:29 RVA23 Silicon

16:06 RISC-V & Linux

18:02 Exciting Times

#risc-v #riscv #rva23 #ai #automotive #cloud #k3 #spacemit #ExplainingComputers