The 2025 National Two Sessions are currently underway. This year’s government work report proposes the establishment of a growth mechanism for future industrial investment, cultivating future industries such as biomanufacturing, quantum technology, embodied intelligence, and 6G. As a frontier field of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, the acceleration of ‘future industries’ cannot be separated from the support of the entire industrial chain, including integrated circuits.
As one of Shanghai’s first municipal characteristic industrial parks, the Shanghai Integrated Circuit Design Industrial Park (hereinafter referred to as the Design Park) focuses on niche industrial tracks and builds a collaborative innovation ecosystem. Recently, a new niche track aggregation area, the ‘RISC-V Ecological District,’ has been added to the Design Park, which has already attracted the Shanghai Open Processor Industry Innovation Center (SOPIC) and leading domestic RISC-V ecological companies such as Xinchai Technology and Zhihe Computing.
Promoting the Gathering of Upstream and Downstream Enterprises and Talent in Pudong
In the field of chip design, the instruction set is the most fundamental technical standard, and different instruction set standards will form different chip ecosystems. In recent years, RISC-V, as an emerging open instruction set standard, has received increasing attention from Chinese enterprises.
Pudong is one of the earliest regions in mainland China to support the development of RISC-V, having initiated the establishment of the China RISC-V Industry Alliance in 2018. RISC-V is an open-source instruction set architecture (ISA) that offers advantages such as being open and free, flexible in design, and low power consumption. Its ecosystem covers the entire industrial chain from upstream instruction set/IP core design, midstream chip manufacturing, to downstream application scenarios, with enormous potential for future development. It is reported that more than half of the 25 standards approved by the RISC-V International Foundation in 2024 are related to high performance or AI.
The ‘RISC-V Ecological District’ is an aggregation area focusing on the integrated circuit niche track launched by Zhangjiang, located in the Shanghai Integrated Circuit Design Industrial Park’s Chuangxin Tiandi. The first phase offers 50,000 square meters of intelligent industrial space, equipped with a 130W/㎡ power supply system, fully meeting the high computing power needs of chip design companies. It is located near the Middle Ring Expressway, with dual-track intersections (Metro Line 2 and Line 13 directly accessible), and within a 500-meter radius of the Jixian Tiandi talent apartment and commercial complex, equipped with convenience stores, canteens, gyms, art centers, and other one-stop business and living facilities.
The Shanghai Pudong Integrated Circuit Industry Service Platform—Zhangjiang Haoxin, led by Tao Lan, introduced that this district is part of the ‘Zhangjiang Integrated Circuit Industry Ecological Corridor’ planned by Zhangjiang High-Tech, aiming to become a global hub and leader for RISC-V technology innovation and application. In the future, it will focus on the Shanghai Open Processor Industry Innovation Center (SOPIC) to strengthen support for small and medium-sized enterprises in various application fields of RISC-V. ‘In July this year, Zhangjiang will also hold the RISC-V China Summit. In addition to providing high-quality, low-cost entrepreneurial space, we also offer professional industrial services, rich communication opportunities, promote the dissemination and application of RISC-V technology, build a more complete architectural ecosystem, and accelerate the gathering of upstream and downstream enterprises and talent in Pudong and Zhangjiang.’
As a leading industry organization, the Shanghai Open Processor Industry Innovation Center, which has settled in the ‘RISC-V Ecological District,’ is collaborating with upstream and downstream enterprises and research institutions in the RISC-V industry chain to build a key common technology platform for RISC-V, using an open hardware platform to construct an open-source software ecosystem, and cooperating with domestic universities to cultivate RISC-V professionals, thereby promoting RISC-V industrial innovation and commercialization. As of December 2024, the China RISC-V Industry Alliance operated by the innovation center has 198 member units.
Dr. Meng Jianyi, CEO of Zhihe Computing, a new member of the ecological district, stated: ‘DeepSeek has driven a new round of innovation in large model architectures and has raised new demands for computing power infrastructure. This change at the computing architecture level presents a tremendous opportunity for all architectures, and among them, the RISC-V architecture, which achieves AI-native inclusivity, undoubtedly has a greater competitive advantage.’
Enterprises settled in the ecological district will enjoy tiered rent support, testing subsidies from the Zhangjiang Chip Testing Public Service Platform, and priority investment from Zhangjiang High-Tech, as well as additional special investment rewards, R&D subsidies, talent introduction policies, and more.
Building a Collaborative Innovation Ecosystem to Accelerate Future Industries
As the organizer of industrial resources and leader of the industrial ecosystem in Zhangjiang Science City, in recent years, Zhangjiang High-Tech has created a ‘tropical rainforest-style’ industrial ecosystem through multiple initiatives. It has successively established the Shanghai Integrated Circuit Talent (Zhangjiang) Production-Education Base, the Zhangjiang Chip Testing Public Service Platform, and Zhangjiang Haoxin, and has promoted a 24-hour ecological community by hosting a series of events such as the Integrated Circuit Leaders Summit, ICCAD, and the 895 Entrepreneurship Camp, creating a ‘Science and Technology Innovation Night City’ that attracts young talent.
In the future, Zhangjiang will take the Shanghai Integrated Circuit Design Industrial Park as the core, seize the layout of the ‘industrial track,’ and accelerate the creation of characteristic industrial parks with higher technical levels, more distinct industrial characteristics, and more efficient upstream and downstream collaboration.
Editor: Ou Ou<br/>Graphic Editor: Ni Zhujun<br/>