What has OpenHW todo with tech sovereignty for embedded electronics

By Jasper Geurtsen

Published Sep 28, 2025

OpenHW Group is directly tied to tech sovereignty for embedded electronics, because it’s one of the key organizations enabling open-source processor ecosystems that can replace or complement proprietary IP (like ARM or proprietary RISC cores).

Here’s how OpenHW fits in:

🔧 What is OpenHW Group?

  • A nonprofit industry consortium (founded 2019).
  • Builds open-source RISC-V processor cores and related IP for use in embedded systems.
  • Focused on industrial-grade quality—meaning verified, supported, and suitable for production (unlike some academic-only cores).
  • Example: the CORE-V family of RISC-V cores.

🧩 Connection to Tech Sovereignty

  1. Alternative to proprietary architectures
  • Most embedded electronics today rely on ARM Cortex-M or Cortex-A cores.
  • OpenHW provides open, royalty-free cores based on RISC-V, so companies (or countries) aren’t locked into ARM licensing or export controls.
  1. Transparency & Trust
  • Open-source RTL (Verilog/VHDL) lets engineers and governments audit the hardware IP.
  • Important for security-sensitive applications (defense, industrial, healthcare).
  1. Ecosystem Independence
  • By standardizing around open cores, companies can develop their own SoCs without relying on proprietary ARM toolchains or licensing regimes.
  • Reduces dependency on single vendors and strengthens sovereignty.
  1. Community & Skills
  • OpenHW builds a shared ecosystem of verification, testbenches, and software support.
  • This makes it easier for local engineering teams (universities, SMEs, startups) to adopt sovereign hardware instead of being tied to global proprietary players.

🚀 Practical Example Imagine you’re building an industrial controller or automotive ECU:

  • With ARM: you depend on ARM’s licensing, NDA-bound docs, and vendor roadmaps.
  • With OpenHW’s CORE-V cores: You can integrate an open RISC-V core into your chip design. You own the RTL, can verify it yourself, and even modify it. You can use open toolchains (LLVM, GCC, Zephyr RTOS). You’re no longer at risk if ARM raises royalties or geopolitical restrictions cut off access.

So: OpenHW is one of the enablers of embedded tech sovereignty, because it provides trusted, open, production-ready processor cores that free companies from dependence on proprietary, foreign-controlled IP.