The Intersection of Open Hardware and European Data Sovereignty

A European Cloud Service Provider Perspective

By Peter Gray – CloudSigma

The appeal of RISC-V lies in its open and programmable architecture, which offers flexibility across a wide range of potential applications—from AI and IoT to Electric Vehicles and 5G. RISC-V is revolutionising fields like AI by enabling more adaptable and efficient computing, especially for inference-heavy tasks. On the global stage, key projects like the XiangShan RISC-V processor, supported by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, are advancing quickly, with Alibaba also entering the arena by releasing a new server-grade RISC-V CPU. These developments illustrate China’s growing commitment to building an independent and innovation-driven semiconductor ecosystem.

Meanwhile, amid rising concerns over data sovereignty and geopolitical risk factors, the EU is strengthening its focus on creating a resilient and autonomous digital ecosystem. The European Strategy for Data, a key policy and legislative initiative, aims to create a single market for data that enhances Europe’s competitiveness and data sovereignty. It includes the development of Common European Data Spaces to ensure data remains under EU control while still being accessible for economic and societal use. Infrastructure and technology projects like GAIA-X, a European initiative that aims to develop a federated and secure European cloud infrastructure, ensuring that data storage and processing comply with EU standards and remain under European jurisdiction. Research & Innovation programs such as Horizon Europe support projects in big data, AI, and digital infrastructure, contributing to the development of technologies aligned with European data sovereignty goals.

The rise of open-source hardware like RISC-V, in combination with Europe’s growing focus on data sovereignty, represents a pivotal opportunity for European Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) and highlights a number of key challenges.

Opportunities:

• Hardware Independence & Customisation – RISC-V’s open-source architecture allows CSPs to design or commission custom processors tailored to their specific workloads—from AI inference to edge computing.
• Data Sovereignty – With RISC-V and European-made chips, small CSPs can offer truly sovereign cloud services—hardware and software both under EU jurisdiction. That’s a unique selling point for customers in regulated industries like healthcare, finance, or defense. 
• Cost Efficiency and Vendor Neutrality – Open-source silicon offers a path to low-to-no licensing costs and reduced vendor lock-in. For smaller CSPs, this opens doors to building infrastructure with more control over margins and upgrade cycles.
• EU Support & Funding Alignment – Initiatives like Horizon Europe, IPCEI, and EuroHPC fund projects that build European cloud infrastructure and computing capabilities. CSPs willing to integrate RISC-V or contribute to EU-compliant stacks are eligible for funding or pilot project roles.

Challenges:

• Maturity of RISC-V Ecosystem – While promising, RISC-V isn’t as mature or battle-tested for enterprise-grade cloud workloads as ARM or x86.
• Software Stack Porting – Existing cloud orchestration and virtualisation tools (like KVM, QEMU, or Kubernetes) need significant adaptation. This engineering overhead can be a hurdle for smaller providers unless they engage in collaborative development or community-driven efforts.
• Hardware Availability – Most powerful RISC-V chips are still emerging, and supply chains are dominated by large players like Alibaba (T-Head), SiFive, or Chinese state institutions. Getting access to commercial-grade, EU-origin RISC-V silicon is taking time.
• Application Layer Lock-In – NVIDIA’s CUDA has become the standard for AI and accelerated computing. For RISC-V to succeed, it needs open alternatives to CUDA that offer real advantages, not just compatibility, or developers may stick with NVIDIA despite interest in open hardware. Tenstorrent is an emerging US manufacturer pushing for an open, RISC-V-aligned AI acceleration ecosystem. If successful, it could create competition in AI computing for those looking to avoid proprietary constraints.

The EU is now investing in RISC-V as a path to develop indigenous chip technologies free from foreign control. Early champions such as ETH Zürich and the University of Bologna laid the groundwork with the PULP Platform, and these efforts have since evolved into major initiatives like the European Processor Initiative (EPI), EUPilot and the DARE project. These programs aim to build a full ecosystem for RISC-V, combining Arm-based CPUs with RISC-V accelerators to power next-gen European supercomputers.

The modular and open nature of RISC-V has enabled flexibility and innovation across Europe’s research landscape. For example, Barcelona Supercomputing Center’s VEC vector CPU leverages RISC-V’s vector extension to provide scalable, high-efficiency computing—a key alternative to the more complex GPU acceleration model used by companies like NVIDIA. Importantly, the EPI project has not only created validated chip designs but has also produced physical chips and developed robust software toolchains like LLVM support for RISC-V. These platforms are now being tested with real scientific workloads in fields such as plasma physics, fluid dynamics, and earth sciences. While competing with established GPU giants may be a long-term goal, RISC-V has already begun reshaping the landscape by empowering European researchers and institutions with deeper control, measurement, and design flexibility—critical steps toward sustainable HPC autonomy in the EU.

The RISER project is part of the open hardware push in Europe, leveraging RISC-V to create a European-designed, server-class processor. By developing domestically designed server-grade processors, RISER reduces Europe’s dependency on chipmakers from the US and Asia (Intel, AMD, Nvidia, etc.) — directly supporting Europe’s strategic autonomy goals. With European-designed processors based on RISC-V, European cloud providers (CSPs) like CloudSigma can build infrastructure that is not only open but also compliant with EU rules like GDPR, the Digital Markets Act, and Cybersecurity frameworks.

As part of the RISER Consortium, CloudSigma gains early access to cutting-edge server-grade RISC-V processors before they become widely available. This provides the CSP the opportunity to test, optimise, and prepare their cloud infrastructure ahead of competitors. As demand grows for GDPR-compliant, EU-sovereign cloud services, CloudSigma can market itself as a leader offering infrastructure powered by European technology, making a strong differentiator in a market increasingly sensitive to data residency and sovereignty.

For European Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) like CloudSigma, it presents a unique opportunity to align their infrastructure strategy with Europe’s broader political and regulatory priorities. The RISER project provides CloudSigma with an opportunity to assess custom silicon tailored to their customers’ unique performance, power efficiency, and security needs. This flexibility is critical in building differentiated cloud services, particularly in high-performance computing, AI workloads, and edge deployments. Moreover, as European software and hardware ecosystems mature, CloudSigma’s involvement in the RISER project becomes invaluable in such a competitive landscape.

By investing in RISC-V-based platforms and fostering collaboration with European chipmakers and research institutions, CSPs can help build a resilient and independent cloud infrastructure while dramatically increasing the power efficiency of computing and creating a more diverse supply chain for hardware.