European semiconductor sovereignty initiatives consider RISC-V as basis for sovereign European chip design independent of US-controlled ISAs.

The concept of a sovereign IT infrastructure remains open to interpretation. American hyperscalers typically view data residency as sufficient to call an IT stack sovereign, yet the physical hardware dimension is rarely discussed: how autonomous can you truly be if your chips originate elsewhere? SUSE and Openchip are setting an example by pursuing RISC-V-based hardware of European origin.

To be clear, Openchip has not yet produced a chip—as was the case a year ago. An actual product should arrive by early 2027 at the latest. RISC-V forms the foundation of their design, an instruction set architecture that, unlike x86 and Arm, operates free from restrictive licensing or per-unit fees. In contrast, even the fastest current RISC-V-based systems fall short of competitive performance levels, though this gap is expected to narrow over time.

The SUSE-Openchip partnership aims to develop advanced RISC-V accelerators—a term primarily applied to high-performance AI chips. Initial offerings should be expected to deliver moderate performance. Yet moderate performance need not diminish its value to the broader chip ecosystem. European automakers, reliant on numerous energy-efficient but not particularly powerful processors, will benefit from expanded European sourcing options. The same applies to organizations bound by compliance requirements or committed to maximum autonomy.

Both SUSE and Openchip emphasize delivering a "truly sovereign" solution for critical environments. From a software perspective, the foundation is solid: multiple Linux distributions, a mature Kubernetes management layer, and AI solutions via SUSE AI Factory provide robust infrastructure for application deployment—sovereign or otherwise. One can readily envision an office suite like Nextcloud deployed atop such a stack, substantially reducing U.S. interference compared to current alternatives.

True IT sovereignty cannot rest on simplistic definitions. A digital workplace independent of non-European entities is already feasible, yet typically runs on hardware sourced globally. Everything from routers and network switches to DNS services and security solutions may be purchased from European vendors in some fields, but in reality they are predominantly American, Chinese, or occasionally from other non-European sources.

Sovereignty initiatives therefore focus on closing gaps. Open-source solutions often serve as interim measures where the digital supply chain lacks European alternatives. Through this collaboration, SUSE and Openchip explicitly prioritize compliance. "Our enterprise customers require predictable infrastructure that complies with evolving European data regulations," said Andreas Prins, Global Head Sovereign Solutions at SUSE. "By collaborating early with Openchip, we ensure that when their RISC-V hardware hits the market, the software stack—from the Linux operating system to Kubernetes container management—will be fully optimized, secure, and ready for deployment."