Two years after Qualcomm made an investment in RISC-V semiconductor designer SiFive, Intel is reported to be preparing a bid for the start-up, worth more than $2bn. According to Bloomberg and Reuters sources, there is the prospect of a bidding war, with “multiple parties” reported to have made offers for SiFive. Of course, there is speculation that one may be Qualcomm. Interest in the open source RISC-V processor architecture has been growing steadily but is likely to have been intensified recently for two reasons. One is that many developments in the platform have been made in China, which sees RISC-V as a possible alternative to western processor platforms such as ARM and x86. US firms will be keen to seize…