A Decade of RISC-V in China (Part 5): Trends in Domestic Capital and Investment Overview (Last Three Years)

According to incomplete statistics from industry media, at least seven domestic RISC-V startups, including ZTE Haoxin, Aowei Lingxin, Bluecore Computing, Zhihe Computing, Jindie Space, Saifang Technology, and SuanNeng Technology, have completed publicly disclosed financing rounds from angel to Pre-B rounds in the past three years, with a total amount reaching hundreds of millions; coupled with other undisclosed cases, the market financing activity is significantly vibrant.

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Abstract

Article Topic: Financing, listing, and merger and acquisition dynamics in the domestic RISC-V sector over the past three years (2023–2025).
Conclusion: Capital continues to focus on “high-performance general-purpose CPUs + AI integration + ecological toolchains”; industrial capital, state-owned capital, and market-oriented funds are working in synergy; the primary market is dominated by A/Pre-A rounds, while the secondary market follows a path of “product landing → Sci-Tech Innovation Board/Hong Kong Stock Exchange application”; notable cases of vertical integration among leading IP manufacturers have emerged in mergers and acquisitions.

Macro Context

In the past three years, RISC-V has rapidly transitioned from “academic exploration” to “capital competition” globally. Frequent financing and mergers and acquisitions have emerged both domestically and internationally, with the industrial chain accelerating from IP, toolchains to complete solutions, driven by both national strategic guidance and capital profit logic, indicating that the ecosystem is moving from fragmentation to systematization.

Policy/Industry: Domestic substitution and open-source ecology drive a dual engine of “software ecology and hardware IP”.
Capital Structure: Industrial capital (large enterprises/upstream and downstream) + local state-owned capital funds + market-oriented institutions operating in parallel.
Sector Hotspots: High-performance CPUs (servers/edge), AI integration, MCU/IoT platformization, EDA/toolchains, and software ecology.

Representative Financing / Mergers / Listings in the Last Three Years List

Statistical Criteria: Major rounds/cases that are publicly disclosed, summarized in reverse chronological order; amounts are based on official or authoritative media disclosures, and undisclosed amounts are expressed as “undisclosed/hundreds of millions”.

Date	Company	Round / Summary of Events	Lead Investor / Investment Party / Entity	Keywords
2025-08	Nuclei	VeriSilicon plans to acquire through share issuance + cash to seek control; the equity acquisition intention agreement has been signed, but the final amount and valuation have not been determined.	VeriSilicon	Completing CPU IP to build a full-stack IP matrix (CPU+GPU+NPU)
2025-06	ESWIN Computing	Application for listing in Hong Kong, with a cumulative financing scale of about 10 billion (rolling over several years).	Social Security Fund and other long-term capital participated in various rounds.	RISC-V/CPU + SoC platform, Hong Kong stock preparation
2024-09	Zhihe Computing	A1 round, hundreds of millions in financing.	Source Code Capital led the investment, with Lingang funds following.	High-performance CPU / AI integration
2023-08	SpacemiT	A round, hundreds of millions in financing.	Lenovo Ventures, Junlian Capital, etc. participated.	High-performance RISC-V CPU / edge computing
2023	StarFive	Strategic investment, amount undisclosed.	Baidu Capital	RISC-V SoC / ecological platform
2023-2025	Multiple local startups	A cumulative disclosure of over 16 financing cases.	Market-oriented funds + industrial capital	MCU/IoT, AI accelerators, toolchains
2025-06	Qin Heng Microelectronics (Nanjing)	Application for Sci-Tech Innovation Board IPO has been accepted, review status “inquired”.	—	Self-developed IP (interface + MCU), IPO path

2025-09-03

Bluecore Computing

Completed a new round of financing worth hundreds of millions; completed hundreds of millions in financing in the first half of the year.

Turing Asset Management, Nianqing Capital, Fuzhuo Capital, Chuangli Group; previously participated by Shenzhen Capital Group, Nanshan Zhanxin Investment, Jinsha River United, Ginkgo Valley Capital, Donghai Investment Control, Gao Weida, Lenovo Ventures, etc.

RISC-V high-performance server CPU, first to return chips, entering the first tier.Chips are about to return.

2023-12-25

Xim Computing

Completed over 200 million in additional financing.

Guangzhou Industrial Investment Group (lead investor), Guangzhou Development Zone Fund, Knowledge City Group followed.; earlier rounds also included B3, B++, and other rounds of financing.

RISC-V DSA architecture AI accelerator, dedicated to data center AI chips; NeuralScale NPC IP and software-hardware stack independently developed.

2023-04

LeapFive

Completed hundreds of millions in A round financing.

Huajin Capital led the investment, with Dahengqin Group, Zhuhai Sci-Tech Investment, Jingcheng Capital, and Shaanxi Investment Fund following.

SoC chips + full-stack solutions, targeting industrial IoT, AIoT.

2023-03

Shenzhen Ruisi Xinke

Tens of millions

Exclusively invested by Chuan Chuang Investment.

Technical R&D strength, achievement transformation capability, and ecological aggregation capability accumulated in the high-end chip field.

2023-09

南京隼瞻科技

Angel round financing

Led by Zimi Investment, Datang Capital, Yida Capital, and Zhongnan Capital.

One of the few domestic IP + EDA emerging enterprises.

2025-05

LeapFive

Completed over 200 million in B round financing.

Zhuhai Sci-Tech Investment, University of Macau Development Foundation, and New Jieli Investment participated.

Accelerate R&D and market expansion, strengthen full-stack ecology and product application.

2023-12

Bluecore Computing

Hundreds of millions in angel round financing.

Wangchuang Investment, Huakong Fund, Shenzhen Nanshan Zhanxin Investment, Mingshi Capital, Koala Fund, and Xincheng Capital jointly invested.

Promoting the rapid landing of RISC-V instruction set high-performance CPUs, helping China’s computing power industry accelerate.

Capital Portrait and Strategy

Domestic capital is mainly driven by industrial funds, state-owned backgrounds, and leading venture capital, emphasizing “industrial landing + policy guidance”; international capital focuses more on technological moats and market scale, with typical strategies being mergers and acquisitions and cross-border cooperation. Both models jointly promote the rapid expansion of the RISC-V industry.

Institutional Structure: First-tier market-oriented VC/PE + industrial CVC (large enterprises/equipment manufacturers/operators) + local state-owned capital funds (parks/new districts/science and technology innovation platforms).
Preferred Sectors:

High-performance general-purpose CPUs (servers/edge/robots)
AI “integration” and heterogeneous fusion (NPU/GPU/accelerators + RISC-V)
MCU/IoT platformization (wireless connectivity + low power + security)
Toolchains/compilers/SDKs and operating system adaptation (ecological stickiness)

Post-investment Value: Ecological operation (large customer introduction/system integration/open-source community), supply chain collaboration, overseas resources (OEM/testing/design services).

Listing and Merger Trends

RISC-V companies are increasingly active in the capital market: domestically, many are pursuing the Sci-Tech Innovation Board and New Third Board paths, focusing on industrial alliances and local integration; internationally, mergers and reorganizations are common, strengthening IP and manufacturing collaboration. Both trends reflect the necessary path for the industry from startup to scaling.

1) Listing Path

“Product Landing → Application”: After having mid-to-high-end products/customer validation, proceed with applications, commonly directed towards the Sci-Tech Innovation Board/Hong Kong Stock Exchange.
“Ecological Companies” are more recognized by the capital market: Companies that have both IP/CPU cores and toolchains/SDKs/development boards with reference designs, forming platform-based revenue.

2) Mergers and Integrations

Vertical Integration of IP Manufacturers: Leading semiconductor platform companies acquire RISC-V IP manufacturers to complete CPU core and toolchain capabilities, consolidating the “IP → chip → ecology” closed loop.
Collaboration of Industrial Capital: Integrating upstream IP, EDA, and downstream modules/complete machines to reduce the risk of ecological fragmentation.

Insights for Entrepreneurs/Management in the RISC-V Sector

Opportunities and challenges coexist in the RISC-V sector: Entrepreneurs should balance technical depth, industrial ecology, and financing strategies, while management should effectively utilize policy and capital tools to balance independent R&D and market expansion. Understanding international mergers and domestic investment logic can help enterprises grow steadily and build long-term competitiveness.

Milestone Design: Break down financing conditions according to “IP → chip samples → small batch → customer introduction → ecological landing”; benchmark against RVA23/software mainline to avoid ecological disconnection.
Ecological Positioning: Differentiate from Arm/X86 by forming a “customizable/expandable/custom operator” route, competing in AI and real-time control scenarios.
Compliance and Going Global: Pay attention to export controls and IP compliance; maintain a positive cycle of “contribution—influence—customer conversion” in the international open-source community.

International Case:

Codasip Financing and Divestment Process (2023-06~2025-07)

European RISC-V leader Codasip (Germany) completed €150 million in Series C financing in June 2023, with investors including Porsche SE, BMW i Ventures, etc. In July 2025, Codasip announced the initiation of an accelerated divestment process, accepting intentions for full or partial acquisition, expected to be completed within three months. This divestment is a strategic move by the company’s board in response to recent “informal acquisition expressions”. Codasip has received a total of €119 million in funding from the EU and member states, with expected subsequent funding reaching €210 million, and has participated in multiple alliance projects, with future financing potentially reaching €51 million, which can be “transferred to buyers”. This event not only signals capital integration in the RISC-V sector but also has profound implications for EUstrategic autonomy and policy testing significance.

GlobalFoundries Acquires MIPS (2025)GlobalFoundries announced in July 2025 that it had reached an acquisition agreement with MIPS, expected to be completed in the second half of the year; the transaction was finalized in August. MIPS will continue to operate as an independent entity, maintaining its IP licensing model. This move makes GF the first pure foundry to combine RISC-V IP with wafer foundry services, enhancing the integration of customer services and market competitiveness, with stock prices also receiving market recognition (up ~6.5%). (Transaction intent, completion process, independent operation, market response).

Tenstorrentcompleted over $693 million in Series D financing (2024)

Tenstorrent is committed to developing AI processors based on the RISC-V architecture, challenging NVIDIA’s dominance in the AI chip market. Valued at over $2.6 billion. Investors include Samsung Securities, AFW Partners, Bezos Expeditions, LG Electronics, Fidelity Management & Research Co., Hyundai Motor Group, etc.

Conclusion

In the past three years, domestic RISC-V capital trends have shown characteristics of “ecologization, platformization, and collaboration”: the primary market continues to bet on “high performance + AI” and “platform-based ecology”, while the secondary market moves towards “platform/product maturity → application for listing”, and mergers and acquisitions have shifted from point-based to link-based. For entrepreneurs and industry players, transforming “open-source ecological power” into “commercial delivery capability” remains the key to success in the next 12–24 months.

References

ZTE Haoxin completes Pre-B+ round financing, cumulative financing hundreds of millionshttps://36kr.com/p/3339903734036233Source: 36Kr Hard Technology Report
Shenzhen Aowei Lingxin completes Pre-A round financing of tens of millionshttps://www.cls.cn/detail/2130562Source: Caixin News Report
Bluecore Computing secures hundreds of millions in financing, has completed multiple rounds of financinghttps://www.stcn.com/article/detail/3319991.htmlSource: Securities Times Report
Zhihe Computing completes hundreds of millions in angel round and Pre-A financinghttps://www.chinaventure.com.cn/news/113-20240110-379217.htmlSource: China Venture Report
SpacemiT A round hundreds of millions in financinghttps://www.cls.cn/detail/1423271Source: Sci-Tech Innovation Board Daily/Caixin News Report
StarFive (Saifang Technology) receives strategic investment from Baidu, cumulative financing reaches 1 billion RMBhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StarFive_%28company%29Source: Wikipedia and news compilation
SuanNeng Technology accumulates hundreds of millions in financing, focusing on RISC-V computing power productshttps://www.eefocus.com/article/1818274.htmlSource: EEFocous Industry Article

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