RISC-V, the free and open-source Instruction Set Architecture (ISA) based on Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) principles, appears to be a perennial mirage for the wider CPU world – brimming with relentless hype and potential, and yet never delivering on those expectations – as even a Delaware court judge has now concluded in the ongoing legal wrangling between Qualcomm and Arm.
According to the presiding judge in the ongoing Qualcomm v Arm legal case, no one can use RISC-V today and Arm and Intel are the only practical choices right now when it comes to the CPU architecture
Before delving into the specifics, let's gloss over the crux of the dispute between Qualcomm and Arm, which ignited into an inferno when Qualcomm bought Nuvia, a startup developing Arm-based CPU cores, in 2021. The $1.4 billion acquisition supercharged Qualcomm's development of its Oryon CPU cores. However, Arm objected that its Architecture License Agreement (ALA) with Nuvia could not automatically port over to Qualcomm, and that the latter needed fresh consent or an entirely new agreement.
In the ensuing legal battle at the Delaware federal court, Judge Maryellen Noreika ultimately sided with Qualcomm's point of view, especially as Qualcomm's own ALA with Arm remains valid till 2033.
Qualcomm also filed a separate case against Arm in 2024, alleging that Arm breached its obligations under Qualcomm’s ALA and Technology License Agreement (TLA) by:
- Withholding architectural verification tools, software patches, and chip-testing/support technology that Qualcomm says were contractually required.
- Violating the most-favored-nation (MFN) pricing provisions (Qualcomm should not pay more than ~10 percent above Arm’s lowest comparable rates).
- Interfering with a prospective Meta Platforms chip deal by leaking (or allowing the disclosure of) a 2024 letter threatening to terminate Qualcomm’s ALA, which Qualcomm claims damaged negotiations, with asserted damage running in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
- Asking for excessively large royalties for Arm's next-gen v10 architecture.
It is this case that is currently being adjudicated in the Delaware court, and where Judge Noreika just issued an interesting observation.
On day 04 of the proceedings, Arm called Timothy Simcoe as a rebuttal witness, who highlighted Arm's ongoing SLA with Qualcomm until 2033 and the competitive pressures that Arm supposedly faces from RISC-V and Intel's x86.
Judge Noreika, however, directly challenged Simcoe on RISC-V's viability:
Simcoe also argued that long term competitive pressure from x86 and RISC-V keeps Arm disciplined. That is when Judge Noreika stepped in with her own questions, and it was extremely revealing to those who weren't yet asleep.
She cut right through the academic spin and asked Simcoe point blank if RISC-V is even real. When Simcoe tried to dance around it by pointing to Qualcomm's investment in Ventana, she bluntly stated that nobody can use it today and that the tangible reality of architecture competition right now is strictly Arm and Intel. Simcoe ended up in full retreat, sheepishly admitting that outside of nascent designs from Chinese companies like Alibaba, RISC-V in enterprise datacenters is barely off the ground. Before Arm passed the witness, Judge Noreika asked Simcoe if his theory is essentially that if Arm is unreasonable, it just gives more incentives for people to invest in other technologies and that serves as the constraint on Arm. Simcoe conceded that was part of it, and the Judge just gave a flat okay and moved on.
Of course, as we've noted only recently, Alibaba unveiled the XuanTie C950 in March 2026, marketing the chip as a RISC-V-based offering for edge AI. Unlike typical ASICs, the XuanTie C950 does not rely on GPUs for AI workloads. Instead, the chip is basically a server-grade 64-bit RISC-V processor, replete with 64 compute cores located on a single piece of silicon, with clock frequencies that are scalable up to 3.20GHz, and where multiple clusters – 8 cores per cluster – are linked together natively using high-speed AMBA CHI fabrics. What's more, to handle demanding AI workloads, matrix and vector acceleration engines are embedded directly into the chip, eliminating the need for GPUs.
Even so, as Judge Noreiga pointed out during the court proceedings, chips based on RISC-V architecture are barely off the ground in enterprise data centers. As a result Arm and Intel's x86 are the only game in town for now when it comes to CPU architecture. Of course, this paradigm can change, but it would likely require a considerable amount of time. And, as we've noted ad nauseum in other posts, the ecosystem effect is a powerful dampener working against the broader adoption of RISC-V.
About the author: Writing is my one incontrovertible passion. Over the past six years, he has authored over 2,200 distinct articles on financial and tech-related topics, spanning nearly 1 million words. And he has been a member of Wcctech mobile team since 2025.
As an alumnus of the University of Toronto, Rotman Commerce Program, I bring nuance, in-depth knowledge, and a unique perspective to every topic that I cover.
When I'm not writing, I'm traveling the world, exploring hidden confectionaries and restaurants as an aspiring food connoisseur.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
