Qualcomm is joining a coalition of companies that are throwing their weight behind RISC-V in an effort to further the semiconductor architecture.

RISC-V is an open-source architecture that is seen as a rival of Arm. It is an appealing alternative for many companies as it does not require a license fee, as Arm does, and gives companies full control over design and implementation.

Qualcomm is joining Robert Bosch GmbH, Infineon Technologies AG, Nordic Semiconductor, NXP® Semiconductors in the creation of a new company in Germany dedicated to further RISC-V’s adoption and commercialization.

“We are excited to come together with other industry players to drive the expansion of the RISC-V ecosystem through development of next-generation hardware,” said Ziad Asghar, Qualcomm Senior VP of Product Management. “Qualcomm Technologies has been investing in RISC-V for more than five years and we’ve integrated RISC-V micro-controllers into many of our commercial platforms. We believe RISC-V’s open-source instruction set will increase innovation and has the potential to transform the industry.”

“Bosch is convinced that initiatives promoting the RISC-V open specifications will bring the global mobility market a significant step further,” said Jens Fabrowsky, Bosch Executive VP. “The initiative now planned will greatly help to establish a reliable and efficient EU-based semiconductor ecosystem.”

The new company is yet to be named, and its formation is subject to regulatory approval. Nonetheless, the announcement is further proof of RISC-V’s potential to be a serious threat to Arm.