AI, RISC-V, QUANTUM COMPUTING Three Technologies Reshaping the future
The next computing revolution isn’t happening on your screen.
It’s happening in semiconductor fabs, government laboratories, and university research centres. And the decisions being made there will shape the next decade of global technology.
When TSMC began building its semiconductor fabrication plant in Arizona, the symbolism was unmistakable. The project attracted the attention of U.S. President Joe Biden and some of the most powerful figures in the technology industry.
The facility, expected to cost more than $40 billion, will manufacture some of the world’s most advanced chips. The event marked a shift in how governments view semiconductor technology. Chips are no longer just part of a supply chain. They have become a matter of national security.
And semiconductors are only one front in a broader technological competition involving artificial intelligence, open hardware, and quantum computing.
The AI Compute Bottleneck
Inside the data centres powering today’s most advanced artificial intelligence systems, the limitations are surprisingly physical.
Training modern AI models often requires thousands of processors running simultaneously for weeks or months. The electricity costs alone can reach tens of millions of dollars.
At the centre of this ecosystem is NVIDIA, whose specialized GPUs have become essential for AI development.
The company’s H100 processors quickly became the defining hardware of the AI boom. Demand surged so rapidly that wait times stretched to nearly a year. Cloud providers began rationing access, and startups planned research timelines around GPU availability.
This concentration of computing power within a single company has made many in the industry uneasy.
As a result, companies and governments have begun exploring alternative approaches to chip design.
The Rise of Open Hardware
One of the most significant developments in this search for alternatives is the growth of RISC-V.
Unlike proprietary chip architectures developed by companies such as Intel or ARM, RISC-V is an open instruction set architecture that anyone can use.
This means companies can design processors without licensing restrictions or royalty payments.
The impact is like what open-source software did for programming: it lowers barriers to innovation.
Startups, universities, and major technology firms are now experimenting with custom processors built on the architecture.
Even established companies have embraced it. Storage manufacturer Western Digital has shipped more than a billion RISC-V cores inside its products, while Google has used RISC-V components within certain security chips.
The architecture is coordinated by RISC-V International, which now includes thousands of members worldwide.
For countries facing technology export restrictions, including China, the architecture offers an attractive path toward technological independence.
The Global Semiconductor Race
Semiconductor manufacturing itself remains heavily concentrated.
Taiwan’s TSMC produces roughly 90 percent of the world’s most advanced chips. These chips are manufactured using fabrication techniques measured at the scale of single-digit nanometres.
Such concentration creates geopolitical risks.
The supply chain disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic illustrated how fragile the system could be. Automotive manufacturers were forced to halt production simply because they could not obtain relatively simple microcontrollers.
Governments responded quickly.
In the United States, the CHIPS and Science Act allocated more than $50 billion to rebuild domestic semiconductor manufacturing. Intel announced large new facilities in Ohio, while Samsung and TSMC expanded operations in Texas and Arizona.
Despite these investments, experts caution that semiconductor manufacturing expertise cannot be recreated overnight. The specialized equipment, engineering knowledge, and decades of process development required to operate advanced fabrication plants make the industry uniquely complex.
China’s Quantum Ambitions
While semiconductors dominate today’s computing landscape, another technology could reshape the future: Quantum computing.
China has invested heavily in quantum research, particularly through the University of Science and Technology of China.
Researchers there have built a quantum communication network connecting Beijing and Shanghai and launched a satellite called Micius capable of quantum-encrypted communication over long distances.
Chinese scientists have also claimed experimental demonstrations of quantum computational advantage for certain specialized calculations.
Although many of these results remain the subject of debate within the scientific community, the scale of China’s investment in quantum technology is widely acknowledged.
The Cryptography Challenge
The implications of quantum computing extend beyond faster calculations.
Much of the internet’s security relies on encryption systems such as RSA encryption algorithm, which depend on mathematical problems that classical computers cannot efficiently solve.
However, theoretical work such as Shor’s algorithm suggests that powerful quantum computers could eventually break these systems.
To prepare for that possibility, researchers are developing Post-Quantum Cryptography.
In 2024, the National Institute of Standards and Technology finalized the first global standards for quantum-resistant encryption.
Migrating global infrastructure to these new systems could take years, because encryption is embedded across banking networks, telecommunications systems, and government infrastructure.
A Convergence of Technologies
Artificial intelligence, semiconductor manufacturing, open chip architectures, and quantum computing are often discussed separately.
They are becoming deeply connected.
AI is driving unprecedented demand for computing power. Open architectures such as RISC-V are enabling new chip designs. Meanwhile, quantum research is forcing a reconsideration of the cryptographic foundations that secure digital networks.
The hardware being designed today will likely need to support the encryption systems of tomorrow.
The Quiet Infrastructure Shift
Technology revolutions rarely appear dramatic while they are happening.
Instead, they unfold quietly through infrastructure changes that most people never see.
Factories are built, standards are rewritten, and new architectures gradually replace old ones.
By the time the public notices, the transition has already happened.
And today, the foundations of global computing are undergoing one of the most significant transitions in decades.
LIBIN CHACKO
Founder & Core Contributor
LAHARA GROUP
LAHARA QUANTUM ONE
