Qualcomm Buys Ventana to Double Down on RISC-V and Custom Oryon CPU

On 11 December 2025, Qualcomm announced its acquisition of Ventana Micro Systems to strengthen its CPU engineering capabilities by integrating Ventana’s expertise in developing RISC-V instruction set architecture. The deal will complement Qualcomm’s ongoing RISC-V and custom Oryon CPU development efforts, the article notes.

Durga Malladi, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Technology Planning, Edge Solutions, and Data Center at Qualcomm, said that the RISC-V instruction set architecture has the potential to propel CPU technology forward and spark innovation across a wide spectrum of products. The move comes after Qualcomm’s recent legal dispute with Arm over ISA licensing, a case the company says it prevailed in court and then proceeded to use the Armv9 instruction set in its subsequent processor designs.

Balaji Baktha, Ventana Micro Systems CEO, described the acquisition as the beginning of an exciting new chapter that will enable the firms to push the boundaries of next-generation products in both energy efficiency and high-performance computing.