Another RISC-V firm falls as GlobalFoundries buys MIPS
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GlobalFoundries is to buy processor developer MIPS in a move that highlights the precarious nature of the RISC-V ecosystem.
This follows the board of European RISC-V core developer Codasip putting the company up for sale after an approach and Esperanto Technologies closing the doors on its RISC-V accelerator chip with 1088 cores. This could very well have been part of the due diligence on the MIPS acquisition.
MIPS will continue to operate as a standalone business to supply cores into autonomous mobility, industrial automation, datacentre and intelligent edge applications. GF says this is a strategic acquisition that will expand its portfolio of customizable IP offerings, allowing it to further differentiate its process technologies with IP and software capabilities.
The move also indicates that processor IP is becoming foundational, and so of less value in the ecosystem. The value of the deal was not disclosed.
MIPS has had a chequered decade. Once a pioneer of RISC processors from the work of John Hennessey and Chris Rowen at Stanford University, it competed directly with ARM for many years with the R2000 designed into the original Playstation console. It was bought by Silicon Graphics Inc (SGI) in 1992 but spun out in 1998. It was bought by UK IP developer Imagination Technologies, which also supplied graphics technologies into consoles, in 2013, before being sold to Tallwood Ventures in 2017 in a complex deal with Chinese links and then onto Wave Computing in 2018. After Wave went bankrupt in 2020 it emerged again as MIPS with a focus on the RISC-V open instruction architecture also developed by Hennessey.
“Becoming part of GlobalFoundries marks the start of a bold new chapter for MIPS,” said Sameer Wasson, CEO of MIPS. “GF’s proven track record in delivering differentiated technologies through a secure, global manufacturing footprint will enhance our ability to accelerate innovation and scale our solutions—unlocking new opportunities in the Physical AI space and driving even greater value for our customers.”
MIPS recently launched its Atlas range of cores after the poor reception of its eVocore P8700 and I8500 series cores that came with the relaunch. MIPS also introduced Atlas Explorer, a virtual platform that enables optimization of performance, power and area in a similar way to the Codasip design optimisation tools.
“MIPS brings a strong heritage of delivering efficient, scalable compute IP tailored for performance-critical applications, which strategically aligns with the evolving demands of AI platforms across diverse markets,” said Niels Anderskouv, president and chief operating officer at GlobalFoundries. “Through this acquisition, we will expand our capabilities to offer customers more flexible, RISC-V-based open platform solutions, paired with our differentiated process technologies and world-class manufacturing to help them build world-class products. This acquisition will be a powerful step forward to push the boundaries of efficiency and performance across a broad range of applications in automotive, industrial and datacenter infrastructure.”
The acquisition of MIPS is subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions, including the receipt of required regulatory approvals, and is expected to be completed in the second half of 2025.
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