As RISC-V continues to become an ever more important open-source CPU technology, NVIDIA just announced that it is now actively supporting the architecture. What challenges has RISC-V faced, what exactly was announced, and why is this announcement so important for open-source computing?
RISC-V is, without question, one of the most exciting developments in CPU architecture in recent decades. The fact that it’s open source, free to use, modify, and extend, has triggered a wave of innovation across industry, academia, and the maker community. For many, RISC-V represents a break from the monopoly of closed, proprietary ISAs like ARM and x86, which is why in some corners of the tech world, it’s starting to gain serious traction.
But let’s not get carried away, as RISC-V hasn’t been without its challenges. In fact, it’s still facing a few big ones that are slowing its broader adoption. Some of these difficulties are growing pains, but others, are more fundamental to how RISC-V is structured.
First, it’s important to remember that RISC-V is an ISA (a specification), not a silicon product. This means that it’s up to hardware teams to turn that clean, modular spec into a working processor. There’s no official RISC-V chip you can just drop into a design like you would with, say, an ARM Cortex-M. If you want a RISC-V core, you either license one from a third party (if you’re lucky enough to find one that fits your needs), or you build your own. Either way, it’s a heavier lift than simply reaching for an off-the-shelf part.
Then there’s the software. Compared to x86 or ARM, the RISC-V ecosystem is still relatively immature. Libraries, compilers, operating systems, and driver support are all in active development, but the keyword here is “active.” Porting software to RISC-V is often more work than people expect, not just because of architectural differences, but because the basic software scaffolding isn’t always there yet.
Another issue is stability, as RISC-V is still evolving (the core spec is stable, but extensions are still being proposed and ratified all the time). While some may see this as a strength (RISC-V can adapt), it also introduces a degree of uncertainty. No one wants to invest months into a design only to find the standard has shifted under their feet.
And we can’t ignore the simple reality that RISC-V isn’t something you can just buy in every performance class. If you want a RISC-V chip that can compete with a Cortex-A76 or a modern Intel core, well, good luck. Most of the silicon available today targets deeply embedded applications or academic use. Now this is changing, but extremely slowly. Until the market catches up, engineers are stuck waiting, or building their own IP from scratch.
Put all of this together, and it’s clear why RISC-V’s adoption curve hasn’t been as steep as some early evangelists had hoped. It’s a powerful, flexible ISA with massive potential, but potential doesn’t ship products. That takes time, effort, and an ecosystem that’s still maturing. If you’re in it for the long haul, RISC-V is worth the investment. But don’t expect plug-and-play magic any time soon.
For years, CUDA has been the kingdom of x86 and ARM CPUs, proprietary instruction sets running proprietary hardware. But in a move that caught many off guard, NVIDIA officially announced CUDA support for RISC-V CPUs.
CUDA is the backbone of modern GPU-accelerated computing; it's the software stack behind AI training, inference, scientific computing, and much of the serious number-crunching in data centers and edge devices. And, until now, if you wanted CUDA, you needed an x86 or ARM CPU in the driver's seat. But this new announcement means that’s no longer the case; CUDA now runs on RISC-V.
What this means is simple but significant: RISC-V is no longer an academic curiosity or a niche embedded option. Now, it’s being taken seriously enough for NVIDIA to dedicate engineering resources to port its flagship software platform (which costs serious money and time).
Of course this announcement is not from altruism or charity, NVIDIA certainly has an angle. This move is likely about geopolitical agility, now that export restrictions continue to tighten, seeing flagship parts like the GB200 and GB300 being off-limits in China, As such, NVIDIA needs a bridge, something that keeps CUDA alive and growing, even in markets where it can’t ship its latest silicon. Of all the options available, RISC-V, being open source and increasingly popular in China, fits that bill.
Is this going to push RISC-V into hyper-scale data centers tomorrow? Probably not. But it will supercharge adoption in edge and embedded platforms, especially in regions where open architectures are a political or economic necessity.
There’s a recurring theme that keeps surfacing when you mention RISC-V in international circles; China.
RISC-V’s open-source nature makes it fundamentally resistant to the same kinds of export controls that have hit technologies like x86 CPUs and NVIDIA’s high-end GPUs. There’s no licensing body, no gatekeeper, no legal choke point. Once the spec is published, it’s in the wild forever.
Because of the open-source nature of RISC-V, a nation under export restrictions doesn’t need permission to use the RISC-V ISA. If their engineers are capable, and China has made it abundantly clear that they are, they can implement the architecture in their own silicon, manufacture it domestically, and deploy it at scale, all without violating international law.
What makes this more potent is the alignment between hardware and software ecosystems. As Western developers (open-source contributors, corporate backers, and major players like NVIDIA), continue to support and enhance RISC-V, that software becomes accessible to everyone, including countries facing sanctions or trade barriers. This makes open source an equalizer by design, preventing anyone nation from gaining an upper-hand.
So yes, while NVIDIA’s announcement to support CUDA on RISC-V is a significant milestone for open hardware, it’s also likely cause for celebration in Beijing. This announcement opens the door to high-performance AI workloads running on fully domestic compute stacks in China, entirely free of Western instruction set entanglements.
But the real sticking point in this whole situation is that China is not just a consumer of RISC-V, they’re rapidly becoming a leader through massive government funding, dedication, and desperation.
If current trends continue, and there’s no reason to think they won’t, China could easily become the epicenter of RISC-V development within the next few years. That means control over the ISA’s practical evolution, tooling, and even ecosystem standards could subtly shift eastward.
In a world where semiconductors are strategic assets, RISC-V might be the one architecture that can't be fenced in. Whether that's a solution or a complication depends entirely on where you’re standing.
