Open source foundation leaves the USA for Switzerland

The US government has banned supplies of US technology to China due to fears of intellectual property theft. However, resistance to this move is ramping up. Now, the first major US organization has fled to neutral Switzerland in a move aimed at circumventing Trump’s Chinese embargo. As reported in “Tages-Anzeiger”, additional companies could now follow the example set by the RISC-V foundation. 

RISC-V’s purpose is to develop open source architecture for microprocesses in smartphones and servers, similar to the open source software from Linux. Many US firms stated a desire to move away from the currently applicable ARM Standard and the monopoly it exercises, with the report in “Tages-Anzeiger” outlining their aim of creating greater scope for chip development on the back of the RISC-V Standard.

The foundation was created from a project initiated by The University of California, Berkeley. Its partners include Google, Samsung, IBM and Nvidia, among others. The Chinese tech giants Alibaba and Huawei have also already joined the foundation as members. A Huawei spokesperson commented that the company shares the same vision as RISC-V with regard to Switzerland as a neutral location and that the decision neatly aligns with Huawei’s concept of a heterogenous, open world. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) is also working with the foundation and has already organized a meeting with RISC-V.

According to William Reinsch, who served as Under Secretary of Commerce for Export Administration during the Clinton administration, the foundation’s move to neutral Swiss territory could trigger a more widespread exodus of technological expertise: “The signal is this: when a government proposes to limit technology transfer so stringently, it compromises the global supply chain in its entirety. Companies are forced to react, and one such reaction is to relocate overseas”.

According to the foundation’s spokesperson Mark Sinclair, the board should now be supplemented by European and Asian members. Details on the Swiss headquarters of the organization and the planned number of employees will be announced shortly, Sinclair commented.