Jon Peddie Research (JPR) today released its RISC-V Market Insights – Q4 2025 Update, which shows the RISC-V ecosystem transitioning from fragmented customization toward consolidated platform delivery. This update documents a fundamental shift in market economics: Integrated platforms and long-term contracts now capture value that individual core licenses cannot generate.
“The market reveals its price discovery. Stand-alone cores fail to fund sustained development; platform revenue and integration agreements succeed,” stated David Harold, JPR senior analyst. “This economics explains foundry vertical integration, IP vendors bundling software with safety certifications, and toolchain absorption into comprehensive platforms. Independent vendors selling per-core licenses will decline. Customers signal their requirements through purchasing decisions, and suppliers restructure operations to match.”
Q4 update delivers four major findings:
Foundries integrate upward. GlobalFoundries acquires MIPS to control CPU designs optimized for proprietary process nodes, delivered with safety qualification documents and validated packaging specifications that compress integration schedules.
Platforms displace components. Vendors win contracts with pre-hardened subsystems—Tenstorrent/CoreLab ships Atlantis for embodied AI applications, SiFive launches its Intelligence portfolio with embedded software stacks—that eliminate integration risk and cut months from deployment timelines.
Software infrastructure matures. Nvidia ports CUDA support to RISC-V hosts, while industry alignment around standardized profiles enables immediate deployment without extended qualification cycles.
Consolidation stalls. “Given the market has over two dozen suppliers, we expected a faster consolidation than is being seen,” said Dr. Jon Peddie, president of JPR. “However, we have also seen a leveling off of new companies entering the market, which may indicate an economic quiescence that reflects the stability and growth of the market.”
To learn more or to subscribe, visit www.jonpeddie.com.
JPR also publishes a series of reports on AI processors, GPU quarterly shipments, CPU shipments, the graphics add-in board market, the workstation market, and the PC gaming hardware market. The latter covers the total market, including systems and accessories, and examines 31 countries.
Pricing and availability
JPR’s Q4’25 RISC-V Market Insights report is available now for $4,000 for four quarterly issues, which includes a half hour of telephone consulting time per quarter, or $2,500 for a single issue with telephone time. For information about this and other JPR reports, go to jonpeddie.com.
