The promise of RISC-V (as I see it) is that it allows for innovation in chip design with a relatively lower level of fragmentation than would otherwise be true.

The promise of RISC-V (as I see it) is that it allows for innovation in chip design with a relatively lower level of fragmentation than would otherwise be true. Without an open and extensible ISA companies would either have to afford the ARM architecture license, or build their own ISA, with all of the tooling and infrastructure cost that implies. This level of innovation implies some fragmentation, but by building on a common base, the pain of that fragmentation can be minimized.