RISC-V CPU SIP Royalties Forecast to Grow to $230M by 2028, says Semico Research

The 3rd Party Semiconductor Intellectual Property (SIP) and the System-on-a-Chip (SoC) markets are undergoing good revenue growth as the world continues to move past the COVID-19 pandemic. Headwinds with weakness in global economies and inflation pose some overall concern, but Semico is assuming any economic downturn will not be long or severe. Augmenting these trends is the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) functionality that is being incorporated in many SoCs and applications. In addition, a new CPU SIP architecture—the RISC-V ISA—has entered the market and is having a profound impact on how SoC designers and silicon architects are implementing their current and future designs. A new Semico Research report, RISC-V CPU Market Analysis for SIP, SoCs, AI and Design Starts (CC330-23) forecasts that total RISC-V CPU SIP royalties will reach $230M by 2028.
 
"Initially embraced by the academic community to teach students about SIP design and complex SoC silicon design, the RISC-V SIP movement has grown to be accepted by the design community at large and is being designed by many companies as an alternative to traditional CPU SIP cores," says Jim Feldhan, President, Semico Research. "The ability to customize the ISA to fit the application is a key differentiator for the RISC-V architecture."
 
Additional key findings include:

• Total SIP Licensing revenues were $3.4B in 2022.
• Total 3rd Party SIP revenues are forecast to reach $13.2B by 2028.
• Total RISC-V CPU SIP royalties are forecast to have a CAGR of 26.7% through 2028.
• Total Advanced RISC-V AI SoC market revenues are projected to reach $24.2B by 2028, a CAGR of 54.2%.

Semico's newest report, RISC-V CPU Market Analysis for SIP, SoCs, AI and Design Starts (CC330-23), looks at the existing SoC markets for Computer, Consumer and Communication applications and analyzes the potential impact RISC-V is currently having and will have regarding the following areas:

• The market revenues for 3rd Party Semiconductor Intellectual Property (SIP), CPU SIP revenues and RISC-V SIP revenues for royalties, licensing and services
• An analysis of the revenues of the CPU SIP architectures currently in the market
• Revenues for the SoC market, the AI SoC market and the RISC-V AI SoC market for Computer, Consumer and Communications applications, split by Advanced Performance Multicore SoCs, Value Multicore SoCs and Basic SoCs
• Unit shipments for the SoC market, the AI SoC market, and the RISC-V SoC market for Computer, Consumer and Communications applications for the three types of SoC
• SoC design starts for the three application categories and the three types of SoC split for the SoC market, the AI SoC market, and the RISC-V AI SoC market