Nvidia is officially bringing its CUDA software stack to RISC-V CPUs.

CUDA is Nvidia’s high-level software abstraction layer for apps to interact with its GPUs - without CUDA support on a CPU architecture, GPU functionality is limited at best. The AI arms dealer [1]announced RISC-V support on stage during the RISC-V Summit in China on Friday, and will eventually enable processors based on the open instruction set architecture (ISA) to serve as a host CPU for Nvidia GPUs.

Interest in RISC-V as an alternative to Arm and x86-based cores has gained momentum in recent years. However, high-performance RISC-V processors appropriate for the datacenter remain few and far between.

[2]

In this respect, Nvidia's decision to announce CUDA support for the ISA in China is fitting. Over the past few years, the Middle Kingdom has made a concerted effort to end its reliance on Western CPUs, with RISC-V playing a central role.

[3]

[4]

Back in March, Alibaba's R&D wing XuanTie [5]unveiled a new CPU core called the C930 aimed at server, PC, and automotive applications. Meanwhile, the Xiangshan project teased a high-performance RISC-V processor core, which it [6]claims is within spitting distance of Arm's two-year-old Neoverse N2 cores.

If and when we can expect to see an Nvidia GPU strapped to any of these chips remains to be seen, but at least now it's a possibility, especially now that Nvidia has [7]convinced Uncle Sam to resume shipments of its China-spec H20 accelerators to China.

[8]

Nvidia's decision to extend support for CUDA to the RISC-V instruction set isn't all that surprising. It's not the first or even second time its devs have worked with RISC-based systems. Today, CUDA runs on both x86 and Arm64-based processors, with Nvidia's in-house Grace CPUs being the most notable.

Prior to Arm, CUDA was also supported on IBM Power-based systems. You may recall that the Department of Energy's Sierra and Summit supercomputers paired Power9 processors with V100 GPUs.

[9]China proves that open models are more effective than all the GPUs in the world

[10]Republican calls out Trump admin's decision to resume GPU sales to China

[11]Chipmaker GlobalFoundries acquires chip designer MIPS

[12]China claims breakthroughs in classical and quantum computers

Nvidia has also employed RISC-V cores in its GPUs for years now. In 2024 alone, RISC-V International [13]estimates that Nvidia shipped more than a billion RISC-V cores, with anywhere from 10 to 40 baked into every GPU sold.

As you might expect, these cores are built into the microcontrollers responsible for low-level functionality like video codecs, chip-to-chip interconnects, power management, and security, rather than orchestrating GPU workloads.

How Nvidia intends to support development on RISC-V based systems remains to be seen. One possibility is a RISC-V single board computer (SBC) melding RISC-V cores with an Nvidia GPU. It currently offers several Arm-based SBCs in this vein. Nvidia could also partner with RISC-V-based chip or server vendors to build reference designs similar to its [14]tie up with Ampere back in 2019.

[15]

The Register reached out to Nvidia for comment; we'll let you know if we hear anything back. ®

Get our [16]Tech Resources



[1] https://x.com/risc_v/status/1946251939823370697

[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aH64dxDJ-W9vbNGDMRof8gAAAc4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aH64dxDJ-W9vbNGDMRof8gAAAc4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aH64dxDJ-W9vbNGDMRof8gAAAc4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[5] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/05/china_alibaba_risc_v_c930/

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/01/08/chinese_riscv_project_teases_2025/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/15/us_allows_nvidia_china_sales/

[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aH64dxDJ-W9vbNGDMRof8gAAAc4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/19/openai_us_china/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/18/trump_gpu_china/

[11] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/09/globalfoundries_acquires_mips/

[12] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/30/china_claims_breakthroughs_in_classical/

[13] https://riscv.org/blog/2025/02/how-nvidia-shipped-one-billion-risc-v-cores-in-2024/

[14] https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/news/nvidia-and-tech-leaders-team-to-build-gpu-accelerated-arm-servers-for-new-era-of-diverse-hpc-architectures

[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aH64dxDJ-W9vbNGDMRof8gAAAc4&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[16] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/