Alibaba and Ant venture to launch RISC-V chips for payments

Alibaba Group Holding’s chip unit T-Head and Alipay, the payment service under Alibaba’s financial affiliate Ant Group, will release computing chips for secure payments based on the RISC-V instruction set architecture, the two entities said.

The development comes as Chinese companies continue to invest heavily in chips, in the wake of US export restrictions targeting China’s semiconductor sector.

The chip will be embedded in hardware devices and used to enhance mobile payments, which are popular in China via the use of QR codes, Alipay and T-Head said on Thursday.