NASA has selected RISC-V technology to help it land future spacecraft on unmapped planets. Meta Artificial Intelligence uses the technology, and Chinese engineers encrypt data using it. However, RISC-V could become the next front in the semiconductor trade war between the United States and China. The technology provides a common language for designing processors found in various devices. It has ignited a new debate in Washington about how far the US should go in expanding restrictions on exporting technology to China. This debate is complicated because RISC-V is based on open-source software and is not actual code. Many companies and institutions distribute these basic computing instructions for free. Despite concerns, some argue that RISC-V has more security as its inner details can be studied openly. Lastly, RISC-V is widely distributed, making it difficult to restrict.
