Could AMD's former foundry be quietly building up to become a major Arm and AMD rival?

Date:
Thu, 09 Apr 2026 16:30:54 +0000

Description:
Could AMDs former foundry be assembling a RISC-V lineup to challenge Arm licensing?

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Tech Radar Pro Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Become a Member in Seconds Unlock instant access to exclusive member features. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over. You are
now subscribed Your newsletter sign-up was successful Join the club Get full access to premium articles, exclusive features and a growing list of member rewards. Explore An account already exists for this email address, please log in. Subscribe to our newsletter Codasip sale fuels speculation about GlobalFoundries expanding RISC-V processor capabilities Studio licensing strengthens case for customized silicon alongside manufacturing services Growing RISC-V portfolio raises possibility of future competition with Arm
and AMD Codasip, a Munich and Bristol-based semiconductor design company that develops RISC-V processor cores, is selling part of its business to an
unnamed public U.S. semiconductor company, with speculation that the buyer could be none other than GlobalFoundries, AMD 's former foundry arm .

Codasip confirmed the company will divest its low-end RISC-V processor
design unit while directing future work toward security-focused chip architectures and system-level products. That lower-end division includes processor cores used in embedded electronics, automotive systems, and industrial hardware, where efficient and customizable designs are widely
used. Article continues below You may like Plucky startup Bolt Graphics still wants to use RISC-V to compete with Nvidia, AMD in AI and beyond and given CUDA's port on RISC-V, there may be something there This chip maker mounted a challenge to Intel's Pentium range - so AMD bought it Arm introduces its
first in-house AGI CPU with backing from Meta and OpenAI A three-part structure GlobalFoundries is seen as the most likely buyer because it has spent the past year acquiring RISC-V processor technology through multiple deals.

The company already owns MIPS and has agreed to acquire ARC-V processor intellectual property from Synopsys, expanding its reach into higher-performance and specialized processor designs.

Adding Codasips entry-level RISC-V cores would extend that portfolio into simpler embedded designs, creating coverage across both low-power and more advanced processor tiers.

The agreement also includes a broad license to Studio, Codasips processor development software that allows customization of processor instructions. Are you a pro? Subscribe to our newsletter Sign up to the TechRadar Pro
newsletter to get all the top news, opinion, features and guidance your business needs to succeed! Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

That capability allows GlobalFoundries, which began as AMDs manufacturing arm before becoming an independent semiconductor manufacturer, to support
tailored chip development, giving customers the ability to modify processor behavior instead of relying only on fixed designs licensed from companies
such as Arm.

Arm has long dominated embedded processor markets through royalty-based licensing, collecting fees from companies that build chips using its architecture.

A manufacturer that offers both fabrication services and tailored processor designs creates an alternative path, especially for companies developing automotive, industrial, and edge computing systems. What to read next Before Cerebras, there was Amdahl: How legendary US engineer was way ahead of his time with wafer-scale integration and plotted supercomputer performance for the humble PC 43 years ago AMD is taking the fight to Intel with its most powerful Epyc chips yet Sorano packs in 84 Zen5 cores and could supercharge the next generation of mobile networks The AI data centers of 2036 wont be filled with GPUs: FuriosaAIs CEO on the future of silicon

Continued expansion into processor technology could eventually place GlobalFoundries into competition with established chip designers.

Codasip described the sale as part of a broader change in direction toward what it calls cyber-resilient semiconductor architectures.

Its future development work centers on CHERI, short for Capability Hardware Enhanced RISC Instructions, a technology focused on limiting software
exploits by enforcing stricter memory access rules directly in hardware.

Cyber-resilience has become a strategic requirement for governments, infrastructure operators, and technology providers worldwide, said Ron Black, Chief Executive Officer of Codasip.

Traditional approaches inefficiently bolt security onto systems after the fact. Our focus is on enabling partners to build security into the
fundamental architecture of compute systems from the beginning.

The transaction is expected to close within about a month, and we'll know
then whether GlobalFoundries is indeed the buyer of Codasip's low-end RISC-V processor design unit. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!

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