I was recently asked what excites me most about the exploding open-source silicon ecosystem. Honestly? It depends who’s asking.

For one person I might talk about Basilisk - the PULP team’s seriously impressive Linux-capable RISC-V core. For another, maybe the new GF180mcu MPW from Wafer.Space, or the millions in funding finally flowing into improving the tools. And then there are the community events that make the whole thing feel electric.

There’s a lot happening at once, so to make sense of it, let me break it down into Foundries, Funding, Tools, IP, Community and the Future.