Infineon, a leader in automotive semiconductors, announced in March this year that it will launch automotive microcontrollers (MCUs) based on the RISC-V architecture. Hans Adlkofer, Senior Vice President of Infineon’s Automotive Electronics Division, pointed out that the automotive electronic architecture is shifting from a distributed to a centralized model, with a large central computing unit expected to be primarily based on the RISC-V architecture, produced at TSMC’s European investment ESMC plant.
Infineon has been active in recent years, announcing in March 2025 its support for RISC-V and plans to introduce RISC-V-based MCUs in its AURIX product line. Samples are expected to be provided to partners for product development in 2026, with mass production anticipated between 2028 and 2029. This move is seen as a step for Infineon to enhance its technological independence amid geopolitical effects, and a significant victory for the RISC-V camp.
Hans stated that the company is taking a firm and proactive approach towards RISC-V. He explained that RISC-V is an open industry standard, and Infineon’s initiative is not aimed at price competition with peers but rather at promoting RISC-V as an industry open standard through collaboration.
He explained that the application of RISC-V in the automotive sector mainly focuses on high-performance computing scenarios, where the Central Computing Unit (CCU) is a key area for RISC-V, as it has very high computational requirements.
He elaborated that future automotive architectures will transition from the current distributed functional units to a large central computing unit. The central computing unit will be paired with 4 to 5 zone controllers, which may utilize TriCore or RISC-V architectures. Infineon is one of the few companies with three core architectures.
However, is the RISC-V ecosystem mature enough? Hans indicated that RISC-V has high compatibility and integrates the advantages of the MCU camp. While Arm performs better in terms of power consumption, RISC-V has potential in computational power. In the future, RISC-V and Arm will develop in parallel, with neither replacing the other.
Hans pointed out that RISC-V core architecture MCUs are expected to be produced at TSMC’s European plant ESMC, while other zone controller chips will be manufactured at Infineon’s existing plants. TSMC, along with Robert Bosch, Infineon, and NXP, announced the establishment of the European Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (ESMC) in 2023.
Infineon’s executives believe that after the mass production of RISC-V chips in 2028-2029, the number of RISC-V architecture processing units in vehicles may significantly increase by 2035, potentially surpassing Arm, as the demand for computational power in vehicles continues to rise. However, for lower-tier models, the usage of Arm architecture chips may increase.
In recent years, Infineon has also actively strengthened its leadership in automotive Ethernet, MCUs, and manufacturing capabilities through acquisitions and investments. In April 2025, Infineon acquired Marvell’s automotive Ethernet division for approximately $2.5 billion to enhance the integration of automotive communication and network ecosystems, and announced its investment in RISC-V architecture, focusing on Software Defined Vehicles (SDV) and smart cockpits as the two core trends following the electrification of the automotive industry.
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