Growing Market Share Of RISC-V: What Does This Mean for the Future of Legacy Systems

Now the question that arises is whether these two facts are in conflict or not, especially for enterprise IT leaders. So, what does a rising RISC-V actually mean for the organizations that still depend on legacy hardware to keep the business running? Does rapid market expansion for a new open architecture push the older systems out, or does it simply highlight a different set of pressures that enterprises should be careful about?

So, here is a blog that will help in navigating through that question industry by industry, separating real risk from market hype.

What Is Driving RISC-V’s Growth

RISC-V is an open, royalty-free instruction set architecture. It means businesses can modify the instruction set for specific workloads without paying licensing fees. For decision-makers, it’s more about flexibility, cost control, and reduced vendor lock-in rather than modification of assembly code. Chipmakers can customize processors for the applications they need rather than paying for the capabilities they do not use.

Here are some significant factors that are fueling the current momentum:

• Customizable AI/ML Processors: AI and machine learning workloads are demanding processors that can be tuned for specific inference or training tasks.
• Low-Power Efficiency: Edge computing and the continued spread of IoT devices need power-efficient, low-cost chips.
• Reduced Vendor Lock-In: A broader industry push towards semiconductor self-reliance, with governments and enterprises alike looking to reduce dependence on proprietary architectures.

Where the Growth Is Concentrated

The segment data has its own story to tell. The IoT devices hold approx. 31% of global RISC-V market revenue in 2025, based on the SNS Insider report. This reflects demand for affordable, low-power, and customizable processors across connected devices.

According to Meticulous Research, data centers and HPC are widely recognized as the fastest-growing application segment going forward, also known as the hyperscalers that explore RISC-V for AI inference and cloud microservices. On the other hand, consumer electronics led with approx. 34 % of 2025 market revenue is driven by smart TVs, wearables, and home automation systems.

There has been a significant rise in automotive and transportation as well due to advanced driver assistance systems and connected vehicle platforms scaling up. For example, Infineon has publicly committed its automotive microcontroller roadmap to RISC-V. This shows how major Tier-1 suppliers are moving towards the open architecture as a long-term foundation rather than a side experiment. This rising interest is across industrial IoT, smart-city edge nodes, and AI accelerators, where customization and cost efficiency matter as much as raw processing power and performance.

How Is the Rising RISC-V Demand Playing Out Across Industries

Here are the market numbers of different industries that are using RISC-V:

Manufacturing and Industrial Automation

Industrial control systems, robotics, and predictive maintenance platforms are among the early sectors that have adopted customized RISC-V cores because manufacturers want processors to be tuned precisely to real-time control requirements. According to GMI Insights, Germany’s RISC-V market alone was valued at USD 79.7 million in 2024 and is projected to grow at a 28.7 percent CAGR.

Telecom and Networking

In the telecom sector, RISC-V is used in edge network functions and control-plane workloads. The low-powered cores can be personalized based on the business requirements and can reduce both licensing costs and power consumption across distributed networks.

Data Centers, Finance, and High-End Computing

Reports have shown that more than 30 billion RISC-V cores are deployed globally. Big names like Nvidia and Google have already swapped Arm-based microcontrollers for RISC-V ones inside their own hardware. This adoption is mostly for control functions rather than front-line computing. But even the technology’s biggest champions are not promising an overnight architecture shift.

Utilities, Energy, and Supply Chain

Utilities and energy operators are exploring RISC-V processors. They are primarily used at the edge, in smart grid sensors and industrial IoT deployments. Here, the cost and power advantages matter more than raw compute. While the supply chain and logistics operations are seeing similar edge-level interest, the large-scale core operational systems are still relying on the current legacy infrastructure.

Why Are Legacy Systems Still in Operations?

New architectures gain popularity for good reasons, but it does not mean that the older ones are no longer needed. They don’t vanish overnight. Legacy systems persist across different industries like manufacturing, telecom, finance, utilities, and supply chain because of four proven characteristics:

• Proven Operational Reliability: Proven reliability under continuous production loads.
• Regulatory Certification Barriers: Regulatory and existing application certification dependencies make the complete application replacement costly and slow.
• Unique Business Logic: The custom applications and data built over decades contain business logic that no off-the-shelf solution can completely replicate.
• High Migration Risk: The rip-and-replace legacy modernization has high risk and is costly.

Interestingly, the same report that talks about the RISC-V growth also admits its ongoing barriers like software maturity, developer availability, and tooling compatibility. They are a kind of challenges that keep proven legacy environments running long after their original hardware platforms stop being manufactured. So, you can say that the rise of RISC-V and persistence are not opposite trends. They are parallel trends operating on different timescales and risk profiles.

Understanding the Real Risk: Hardware Obsolescence, Not Architecture Competition

If we think about the actual threat to legacy systems, it is not the new ISA that can steal its critical workloads but its aging physical servers that are getting nearly impossible to maintain. Over time, the spare parts dry up, skilled technicians retire, power and cooling costs rise, and security patches for aging platforms stop making it vulnerable to cyber threats.

The decision makers here face a classic bind. They want to modernize their infrastructure for cost, security, and operational reasons, yet they critical workloads rewriting or re-certification is not an option for them when they are still running.

How Legacy Hardware Emulation Fits In

For industries that are still operating, legacy hardware is just gambling with their critical operations. These aging systems are prone to hardware failure and can result in a total shutdown. These monolithic architectures are not only hard to maintain but also hinder growth and are not compatible with modern applications. Rewriting or re-certification of existing applications can be very expensive and time-consuming. There are also many risks associated with them. If these critical workloads are still in operation, then hardware emulation seems to be the best legacy migration option.

By replacing the outdated hardware underneath, businesses can continue to operate on their existing workloads. It does not require any modification in binary code. This way, you can replace the aging hardware with modern infrastructure like x86 or cloud platforms. This allows you to preserve your existing workloads and operating systems while leveraging the benefits of modern platforms. It improves scalability, flexibility, security, compatibility with new technologies, and overall performance. Studies have shown that post-migration businesses can experience up to 30–50% reduction in infrastructure or operational costs.

Hardware Emulation with Stromasys Charon Solution

Stromasys is one of the leading hardware emulation service providers for enterprise-grade legacy modernization. For more than 25 years, it has successfully catered to industries across the globe. Its Charon emulation solution mimics the behavior of legacy hardware like SPARC, VAX, Alpha, PA-RISC, and PDP-11 on modern industry-standard x86 servers or in the cloud. This ensures the original operating systems (Solaris, OpenVMS, HP-UX, Tru64, MPE/iX, and others), layered products, and applications continue to run unchanged.

Charon eliminates the aging hardware dependencies along with the false choice between adopting newer technology and preserving operational stability. IT teams can retire aging physical frames, consolidate footprint, improve energy efficiency, and gain access to contemporary management and disaster-recovery tools while the business continues to use the exact same applications and workflows it has relied on for years.

As the industry landscape is evolving, especially the semiconductor (including potential future hosting on newer architectures), the emulated environment can move with it without forcing application rewrites.