Hong Kong is also getting into chip manufacturing, with mass production expected in the first quarter of next year.

Lions Rock was originally a landmark in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Now, this term has taken on a new meaning and has become a reference for the development of Hong Kong's local innovation and technology industry.

Recently, the world's first data center management chip based on the RISC-V architecture, the "Lions Rock Chip," was launched in Hong Kong. This chip is from StarFive Technology, which was invested in by the family office founded by Li Ka-kit, the chairman of Henderson Land Development, and the Hong Kong Investment Management Limited (HKIML), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Hong Kong government. This marks the first large-scale commercial implementation of RISC-V in the data center field.

"The chip has received customer orders and is currently in the trial production stage. Mass production is expected to begin in the first quarter of next year," said Xu Tao, the founder and CEO of StarFive Technology, during an interview with Jiemian News on the sidelines of the 2025 RISC-V Industry Development Conference and RDSA International Forum held from November 24th to 25th. He also mentioned that AI servers, edge computing, and smart energy are among the downstream application scenarios. The company will promote the application of the chip in Hong Kong, including deploying it in local data centers.

"Data center operation and maintenance will be the largest application scenario, as cloud service providers and operators have a high demand for it. Secondly, edge computing, although the current market size is relatively small, has great potential. Since edge computing servers are deployed in a decentralized manner, corresponding products are needed for centralized management. In addition, industrial control is also an area we are expanding into," said Xu Tao.

RISC-V (Reduced Instruction Set Computer V) is an open-source instruction set architecture for chips that was introduced in 2010. It stands alongside the x86 and ARM architectures and is expected to become an important global chip instruction set architecture in the next generation. Due to its open-source and scalable nature, RISC-V presents an opportunity for the chip industry to leapfrog in development.

"The Hong Kong government has been focusing on promoting innovation and technology in recent years, but where to start? RISC-V is a good opportunity because it is relatively egalitarian. Even if there is no strong industrial foundation or if it is a bit behind, there is still a chance to catch up. Moreover, it is a light-asset industry, which is suitable for Hong Kong, where land is extremely expensive. Additionally, Hong Kong places great emphasis on intellectual property protection, which is beneficial for the industry," analyzed Xu Tao.

In March this year, HKIML announced a strategic investment in StarFive Technology, aiming to use this as a lever to promote the development of the RISC-V industry in Hong Kong, including integrating resources in chip design, system development, and application scenarios. Prior to this, HKIML had joined the RISC-V Working Committee of the China Electronics Standardization Association and became an official member.

The "Lions Rock Chip" is one of the outcomes of this strategic investment. HKIML stated that this is the first RISC-V chip led by Hong Kong entrepreneurs in its research and development, which can fill a key technological gap in China's self-controllable computing infrastructure.

Supermicro, which participated in the development of the "Lions Rock Chip," has become its first customer. Xu Tao revealed that the company has established an innovation center in cooperation with Supermicro to promote the application of the chip. StarFive Technology is expected to capture a significant market share through the "Lions Rock Chip" and gradually expand into areas such as connectivity, storage, and networking.

The wave of artificial intelligence has led to a surge in the demand for computing power. As the underlying foundation for supporting the stable operation of large-scale computing clusters, data center management chips have a huge market potential. Industry data shows that the annual global shipment of data center management chips is approximately 16 million units, and it is expected to increase to 30 million to 40 million units by 2030.

On November 24th, Ni Guangnan, the director of the Strategic Guidance Committee of the RISC-V Working Committee and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, pointed out in his speech that the open-source RISC-V has features such as simplicity, flexibility, openness, low power consumption, modularity, and scalability. It can quickly respond to the special needs of AI applications, and its core role in the field of AI chips will be further strengthened. Data disclosed at the conference shows that it is expected that by 2030, the global shipment of RISC-V chips will exceed 16.2 billion units, with a compound annual growth rate of over 40%.

In fact, the field of data center management has long been dominated by international manufacturers, but this situation is gradually being broken. At the sub-forum on "RISC-V Emerging Technologies and Application Scenarios" jointly hosted by China Mobile Core Ascent and ESW Computing on November 24th, Zhou Jie, the vice president of StarFive Technology, mentioned that the company is currently developing the first domestic self-controllable full-function BMC chip based on RISC-V, the "JH-B100." This chip has completed compatibility testing with multiple server platforms and is about to enter large-scale commercial use. The "JH-B100" is comparable to international mainstream products in terms of startup speed, support for national encryption standards, and multi-node management, providing underlying support for the efficient operation of data center infrastructure.

"As more and more data centers are built and the tasks they undertake increase, the demand for management also rises. Previously, this field was monopolized by overseas companies, but now domestic chips can also provide such products," said Xu Tao. He also explained that data center management chips ensure the normal operation of data centers in several aspects. Firstly, they ensure security; secondly, they maintain daily operation and maintenance, including software upgrades, replacements, and handling of system outages, which may involve remotely managing hundreds of thousands or even millions of controllers simultaneously; thirdly, they use AI to detect the health status of data centers, that is, to intervene in advance to prevent data loss and other situations.

"This chip can be understood as the property management of a data center, responsible for the building's system security, energy consumption scheduling, and operation and maintenance management. The chip is equipped with a high-performance RISC-V core and a coherent on-chip network (NoC) independently developed by StarFive Technology," said Xu Tao. He also mentioned that the company has reached a technical cooperation agreement with Intel, and the "Lions Rock Chip" has completed the verification of platform management functions in Intel's customer reference system.

In terms of application implementation, StarFive Technology has also cooperated with China Mobile Hong Kong and Towngas Hong Kong to promote the application of the "Towngas Chip" in Hong Kong, with shipments exceeding 6 million units. This chip has been applied to smart gas meters in Hong Kong households, which can improve the efficiency of meter reading and data security. For example, it can detect gas leaks through abnormal data.

Hong Kong is not a traditional stronghold in the chip manufacturing field, but in recent years, under the top-level design and strategic layout, it has been seeking breakthroughs. In 2024, the Hong Kong government established the Hong Kong Microelectronics Research and Development Institute to research and develop core technologies for third-generation semiconductors and set up two pilot production lines for third-generation semiconductors, focusing on silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) materials respectively. These lines are expected to be operational in the first half of next year.

Limited by factors such as cost and environment, the development of the ecosystem is mainly driven by patient capital with government backgrounds. Hard technology, life science, and new energy and green technology are the three major sectors that HKIML has focused on since its establishment. As of the end of October 2025, the company has invested in more than 150 projects, with two companies already listed in Hong Kong and more than ten others having submitted listing applications in Hong Kong this year. Currently, every HK$1 invested by HKIML has leveraged more than HK$6 in long-term market funds.

"In addition to providing financial support, HKIML also acts as an ecosystem builder. It promotes the popularization of technology in schools. For example, when its partner holds a press conference, HKIML will organize primary and secondary school students to participate, thereby stimulating students' interest in innovation and technology. Moreover, HKIML also promotes cooperation among the companies it invests in and provides support from the government side," said Xu Tao.

In addition to the so-called "Hong Kong version of Temasek," the Hong Kong government has also introduced the "Innovation and Technology Fund" to encourage entrepreneurship. In June this year, the Innovation and Technology Commission of Hong Kong announced the second batch of projects funded by the "Industry-Academia-Research 1+ Program," with a total funding of over HK$1 billion. Gaowu Semiconductor, founded by Yu Jie, a professor in the Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, is one of the funded projects. This company focuses on the design and development of high-end energy-saving semiconductor chiplets for high-speed optical communication in data center interconnection (DCI) and satellite communication in 6G networks.

Yu Jie told Jiemian News that the medical field is one of the application directions for RISC-V in Hong Kong. "Hong Kong has a high degree of aging, and the elderly need to have their health data collected regularly. In the RISC-V ecosystem, more sensors can be used to collect data while ensuring data confidentiality. The Hospital Authority already has corresponding mechanisms in place."

Collaborating with companies in industry-academia-research projects is another way for Hong Kong to transform scientific research achievements. For example, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology has cooperated with Sunzhan Technology from Guangzhou. Zeng Yi, the founder and CEO of Sunzhan Technology, told Jiemian News that the company has experience in collaborating with universities. Last year, it reached a cooperation agreement with a university in Shanghai. The university's research team had achieved results in encryption algorithms in the communication field but lacked channels for commercialization. Later, Sunzhan Technology suggested that they develop a set of instruction sets to match DSA scenarios, and then the company would promote DSA products.

Sunzhan Technology's main business includes providing RISC-V dedicated processor solutions for DSA. "In the RISC-V and even the AI industry, there is still a lot of underlying work to be done. For example, in the field of sound, including voiceprint recognition, simultaneous interpretation, and noise reduction, in addition to a powerful RISC-V CPU, the transplantation of audio libraries is also required. This is a large workload that commercial companies cannot cover alone. We are collaborating with universities in Hong Kong and Macau to explore cooperation in this area," pointed out Zeng Yi.

This article is from "Jiemian News". Reporter: Zhang Xilong. Republished by 36Kr with permission.