This is an abridged version of 2026 RISC-V Market Report and Ecosystem Guide by the SHDgroup, provided at no charge thanks to the support of their sponsors. An unabridged version is also available with over 200 pages and comes with a spreadsheet containing over 300 tables of detailed information. In both versions, the intention is to provide a comprehensive examination of the rapidly expanding semiconductor market, including how it is evolving alongside the concurrent emergence of RISC-V and the influence of AI. The accelerating build-out of data centers for AI inferencing and training and Large Language Models (LLMs) is having a profound impact on semiconductor revenues worldwide. This impact extends to the adoption of the RISC-V ISA in an increasing number of SoCs aimed at including some level of AI functionality in the silicon solution. These impacts also extend to the Semiconductor Intellectual Property (SIP) vendors as they look to accommodate the acceleration of the different Neural Networks being used and EDA Tool vendors as they look to infuse AI functionality into their EDA tools to aid the productivity of silicon designers.

The introduction of RISC-V has fueled extensive CPU architectural exploration, visibly impacting device revenues, unit shipments, design starts, business models and IP licensing revenues on a global basis. The pervasive integration of AI across applications is a primary catalyst in today’s semiconductor market. The RISC-V architecture has notably influenced SoC designers and architects and is poised to drive a substantial share of designs, revenues, and unit shipments in the coming years.