Alibaba Group’s research arm, Damo Academy, has seen more than 6 billion chips shipped based on its XuanTie RISC-V architecture, the South China Morning Post reported on 20 October 2026. Chief scientist Meng Jianyi announced the figure on 19 October 2026 at the annual RISC-V Summit China in Shenzhen.
Digitimes reported the same milestone on 20 October 2026: cumulative shipments of chips incorporating Damo Academy’s RISC-V processor intellectual property, branded XuanTie, have surpassed 6 billion. The South China Morning Post is owned by Alibaba.
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The key insight: As we read it, Alibaba is putting a number on an open-standard bet: more than 6 billion chips shipped with its XuanTie RISC-V designs, per its chief scientist, as it pushes the same architecture from embedded devices into AI servers.
The SCMP described it as a milestone as Alibaba doubles down on the open standard in artificial intelligence and automotive systems.
Digitimes said the company is expanding beyond embedded applications. Both reports describe the figure as chips based on, or incorporating, XuanTie designs.
RISC-V is an open-standard instruction set architecture that developers can use to design processors, and it is managed by the non-profit RISC-V International, the SCMP explained. Because the architecture is an open standard, developers can use it to design processors while potentially reducing reliance on foreign chip-design technologies amid US-led export restrictions, the SCMP wrote.
More than 6 billion chips have shipped based on Alibaba Damo Academy’s XuanTie RISC-V designs, chief scientist Meng Jianyi announced on 19 October 2026 at RISC-V Summit China (via the SCMP, which Alibaba owns, and Digitimes). The 25% grid is the Omdia forecast Meng cited: RISC-V could account for about 25 per cent of the worldwide processor market by 2030. It is a forecast, not a result.
The Forecast Alibaba Cited
Meng cited forecasts from research firm Omdia that global RISC-V processor shipments would grow by nearly 30 per cent annually and could account for about 25 per cent of the worldwide processor market by 2030, the SCMP reported.
Those are Omdia’s forecasts as Meng cited them, not Alibaba results and not our own estimate.
The AI Server Push
The milestone follows the launch earlier this year of the XuanTie C950, a flagship RISC-V processor that Alibaba called the most powerful of its kind globally, the SCMP said. Alibaba said it was developed to support AI agents and other workloads in cloud and high-performance computing environments, and that it delivered more than three times the performance of its predecessor, the C920.
Meng also highlighted the engineering challenges involved, according to the SCMP. “The biggest challenge lies in co-design,” he said in an interview with RISC-V International, released by Damo Academy last week. “Isolated raw computing power means little; the key is balancing computation, data movement and software optimisation.”
For large AI models such as Qwen3.8-27B, he added, techniques such as quantisation, matrix instructions and memory bandwidth must be integrated as a unified system, the SCMP reported.
The Structural Read
As we read it, the count is about reach: Digitimes describes it as cumulative shipments of chips incorporating XuanTie IP, so it measures how widely the designs are used, not Alibaba’s own chip sales.
As we read it, the SCMP ties the bet to supply: RISC-V lets developers design processors while potentially reducing reliance on foreign chip-design technologies amid US-led export restrictions.
As we read it, the next test is AI workloads: Alibaba says the C950 delivers more than three times the performance of the C920, and Meng says the challenge lies in co-design, not raw computing power.
Meng Jianyi, chief scientist, Alibaba Damo Academy (interview with RISC-V International, via the SCMP)
“Isolated raw computing power means little; the key is balancing computation, data movement and software optimisation”
Three Implications
A SHIPMENT MILESTONE More than 6 billion chips have shipped based on XuanTie RISC-V designs, Meng announced at RISC-V Summit China on 19 October 2026.
A CITED FORECAST Meng cited Omdia forecasts that RISC-V could account for about 25 per cent of the worldwide processor market by 2030.
AN AI SERVER PUSH Alibaba says the C950 was developed for AI agents and cloud and high-performance computing workloads.
The framework states the pattern as “Close the SCARCE layer (keep proprietary) + Open the ABUNDANT layer (commoditize)”.
As we read it, RISC-V is an open instruction set, and Alibaba’s XuanTie processor IP is built on it. The framework was published in March 2026 and does not discuss Alibaba or RISC-V.
What Is Not Established
Neither the SCMP report nor the readable part of the Digitimes report gives a split of the 6 billion chips by use, so we cannot say how many are in AI servers rather than embedded devices. Neither names the chipmakers whose chips incorporate XuanTie IP.
The C950 performance claim is Alibaba’s own, and the market-share figure is an Omdia forecast. The SCMP, which carried the fullest account, is owned by Alibaba.
Alibaba’s Damo Academy says more than 6 billion chips have shipped using its XuanTie RISC-V designs, its chief scientist announced on 19 October 2026, as it pushes the architecture into AI servers with the C950.
A note on sourcing. This piece is built on the South China Morning Post’s 20 October 2026 report, read in full, and the readable part of Digitimes’ 20 October 2026 report. The SCMP is owned by Alibaba. We did not find a Damo Academy release on the milestone. The market-share figure is an Omdia forecast as cited by Alibaba. Nothing here is a forecast of ours, and nothing here is financial or investment advice.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
