36Kr Exclusive | Former Alibaba T-Head Semiconductor Executive Launches Startup, RISC-V Chip Maker Secures New Round of Financing

Author | Yujie Qiao

Editor | Silai Yuan

Hard Krypton has learned that Shenzhen Zhichuangxin Microelectronics Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Zhichuangxin") has completed its Pre-A round of financing. This financing round was jointly participated by institutions including Tsinghua Star Venture Capital, the industrial fund initiated by Shenzhen Kaihong Digital Industry Development Co., Ltd. (referred to as "Shenzhen Kaihong"), Zhuhai Zhengling Group, and Puyuan Technology.

After the completion of this financing round, Zhichuangxin will launch strategic cooperation with Shenzhen Kaihong focusing on the integration of OpenHarmony and open-source RISC-V, to jointly promote the construction of the "dual open-source" software and hardware ecosystem, and accelerate the implementation of relevant technologies in industrial scenarios such as smart terminals.

Founded in 2022, Zhichuangxin was established by Chen Hao, a former senior executive of Alibaba T-Head, and its core team comes from semiconductor enterprises such as Alibaba T-Head, ZTE, and HiSilicon, with many years of industry experience, focusing on the R&D of RISC-V processors and SoC chips.

In recent years, with the continuous improvement of the standard system, RISC-V is becoming one of the fastest-growing open instruction set architectures in the world. RISC-V International continues to promote the evolution of standards such as vector extension, DSP extension, cryptographic security, and virtualization, enabling RISC-V to gradually cover more application scenarios such as smart terminals, industrial control, edge computing, and the Internet of Things. According to forecasts from The SHD Group, the cumulative global shipment of RISC-V SoCs will reach 161.81 billion units by 2030, and the market size is expected to reach 92.7 billion US dollars.

At present, most domestic RISC-V enterprises focus on fields such as servers and robots. Chen Hao stated that a real industrial ecosystem does not consist of chips alone, but is jointly composed of chips, software platforms, and terminal applications. Only through the collaboration of software and hardware and the formation of large-scale product implementation can RISC-V truly complete the leap from technological innovation to industrial application.

Based on this idea, Zhichuangxin hopes to go beyond just chip R&D and promote the construction of the RISC-V ecosystem. Previously, the company has collaborated with RISC-V IP vendors, and cooperated with Tier-1 enterprises such as Elete and Changfeng Imaging to jointly promote chip adaptation, software migration, development toolchain construction, and terminal product implementation, gradually improving the RISC-V application system.

This cooperation with Shenzhen Kaihong is also an important step for the company to advance the industrial ecosystem. As an important participant in the OpenHarmony ecosystem, Shenzhen Kaihong is promoting OpenHarmony into more digital and intelligent scenarios across industries. The two parties plan to combine the RISC-V open architecture with the OpenHarmony operating system to jointly explore the "dual open-source" software and hardware path, collaborate in areas such as chip R&D, operating system adaptation, mass production of products, and industry applications, and initially enter large-scale shipment scenarios such as smart homes to accelerate the implementation of the domestic software and hardware ecosystem.

In terms of products, since its official operation three years ago, Zhichuangxin has launched a number of chip products with built-in RISC-V CPUs and completed mass production and delivery. Relying on its accumulation in RISC-V chip design, large-scale mass production, and scenario-based applications, the company has obtained mass production orders from multiple leading system vendors, and currently has an annual chip shipment of several million units. In addition, the company has entered the field related to national-level computing power infrastructure and reached important cooperation.

The following is an excerpt from the conversation between Hard Krypton and Chen Hao, founder of Zhichuangxin:

Hard Krypton: There are many companies developing RISC-V chips now. You mentioned the construction of an ecological platform. Is this Zhichuangxin's differentiated advantage?

Chen Hao: I think that's a reasonable interpretation. The biggest challenge for RISC-V is not the chip itself, but the ecosystem.

Since it undertakes the mission of domestic substitution, it is not enough to just manufacture the chips; more importantly, we need to make them truly usable. There are quite a few domestic enterprises working on RISC-V, but most of them focus on fields such as servers and robots. A real ecosystem is a complete system jointly composed of "chips + software platforms + applications". Only through the collaboration of software and hardware, coupled with the actual implementation of downstream products, can a sustainably developing industrial ecosystem be formed.

At present, RISC-V has not yet formed such an ecological closed loop. Therefore, we hope not only to develop chips, but also to build software platforms, while uniting more partners to jointly construct software and hardware platforms, creating truly implementable products in key industries, so that end users can feel the value brought by RISC-V, and enterprises in the industrial chain will also have the motivation to continuously invest in ecological construction, rather than only staying in a few scenarios such as robots or high-end AI chips.

Hard Krypton: What specific measures has the company taken to advance the construction of the ecological platform?

Chen Hao: We are mainly advancing in three directions.

The first is to jointly solve the problem of RISC-V mass production implementation with partners in the industrial chain. We will collaborate with RISC-V IP vendors to cooperate with vertical industry customers that have large-scale shipment capabilities, understanding their most concerned issues when migrating from foreign processors to domestic solutions, such as R&D costs, migration cycles, product stability, and new technology adaptation. In addition to providing chips, we also help customers complete application migration, and improve a complete set of development toolchains covering R&D, debugging, simulation, and production, so that products can truly move from the R&D stage to mass production.

The second is to build a general-purpose software platform. Chips alone are not enough; we also need to improve the basic software ecosystem such as operating systems. This cooperation with OpenHarmony aims to jointly build a software system based on our RISC-V platform, enabling software and hardware to truly collaborate.

The third is to unite terminal vendors to promote product implementation. We will provide customized smart solutions for terminal customers based on industry needs, ultimately achieving large-scale applications.

Hard Krypton: What makes this cooperation with OpenHarmony different?

Chen Hao: RISC-V is essentially a CPU technology path, and the development of CPUs has always been inseparable from mature operating systems. For example, x86 corresponds to Windows, and ARM has mature ecosystems such as Android and iOS. Similarly, RISC-V cannot rely solely on chips in the future; it also needs a stable and reliable software system as support. This is also an important reason for our cooperation with OpenHarmony. For OpenHarmony, its development also needs to take root in a mature hardware platform; while for us, RISC-V also needs a complete software ecosystem. Therefore, this cooperation is essentially exploring the "dual open-source" path — combining the open-source RISC-V hardware platform with the OpenHarmony operating system to jointly build the domestic software and hardware ecosystem.

Previously, we have basically completed the construction of the underlying hardware platform. After introducing OpenHarmony, we can further expand the platform's capabilities to cover more smart application scenarios. At this stage, we will prioritize entering the smart home field. Compared with other consumer electronic products, smart homes have a larger installed base and are also the scenario where domestic operating systems have the best chance to achieve large-scale implementation. If widespread applications can be formed in this vertical industry, it will drive the rapid growth of the RISC-V and OpenHarmony ecosystems, and also create industrial barriers.