Nvidia’s AI gold rush just minted a $3.65B “open” chip middleman

$3.65 billion — for a company whose whole vibe is “what if we didn’t fully build the chip, just the instructions and vibes.”

SiFive, the RISC-V chip startup backed by Nvidia, reportedly hit a $3.65B valuation. Investors are still throwing cash at AI “pickaxes,” because nothing says “innovation” like selling the shovels while everyone else panics in the mine.

RISC-V is the “open” instruction set that’s supposed to make chips more customizable and less dependent on the usual royalty vampires. SiFive sells the cores and tools that companies use to design their own processors, especially the kind that could end up inside AI servers, edge devices, and whatever surveillance toaster your landlord installs next.

And that “open” label? Cute. The spec is open-ish, but turning that into an actual working chip still takes talent, time, and a foundry that isn’t booked until the sun explodes. If you thought “open” automatically meant “cheap,” congratulations on your new career in being financially disappointed.

Meanwhile, Nvidia backing anything right now is like Taylor Swift dating your startup — it doesn’t matter what you do, your valuation gets a halo and everyone pretends it’s destiny, not hype.

If this bet pays off, companies get alternatives to the Intel/Arm duopoly and more leverage in AI hardware. If it doesn’t, you just watched venture capital cosplay as industrial policy while your GPU bill keeps eating your rent.