ESI is a structured program organizing four players — regulated enterprises, hyperscalers, ODMs, and US silicon fabs — around a single open, auditable POWER computing platform. Buyers get sovereign bare metal at cost + 10%. Builders get an organized, compliance-motivated market ready to buy.
US-based manufacturing for every die. Equal one-third volume split across three founding fabs. 5nm-class for leading-edge compute and AI dies; mature nodes for I/O, analog, and security dies where appropriate.
Hyperscalers bring their own silicon design teams to build proprietary chiplets that plug into the shared ESI base platform via UCIe. Each hyperscaler's custom die — networking, AI acceleration, confidential compute — delivers unique cloud differentiation on a common sovereign foundation.
ODMs design and manufacture complete, sovereignty-certified bare metal platforms using OCP-spec methodology. They receive chipsets from fabless partners and deliver validated, compliance-ready server systems to regulated enterprise buyers.
Financial services, government, healthcare, and critical infrastructure organizations that already run IBM POWER. $5M founding program contribution per institution. Their compliance requirements — DORA, FedRAMP, FIPS 140-3 — are written into the silicon specification from the start.
Fabs → chiplets → ODM platforms → regulated buyers · Hyperscalers → hybrid cloud extension
Open-source silicon RoT · Device identity · Firmware measurement · Remote attestation · FIPS 140-3 cryptography · Secure boot enforcement
Nitro-class hyperscale networking chiplet — proprietary to AWS sovereign POWER regions
TPU-class inference acceleration — sovereign AI workloads on Google Cloud POWER
Pluton-class hardware security extension — enhanced attestation for Azure hybrid sovereign
Ultra-low latency RDMA fabric — Oracle Database acceleration on sovereign POWER
Mature node dies (I/O, security, analog) sourced from US facilities across all three partners on appropriate older nodes. No single-fab dependency at any process layer.
| Layer | Open Solution | Governance | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instruction Set | POWER ISA | OpenPOWER Foundation / Linux Foundation | Open · Licensed 2019 |
| Root of Trust | Caliptra | CHIPS Alliance / Linux Foundation | Open · Shipping in AMD silicon |
| Firmware | coreboot + Heads | coreboot.org · Heads project | Open · Production tested |
| Chiplet Interconnect | UCIe | UCIe Consortium | Open Standard |
| Operating System | Linux | Linux Foundation | Open · Universal |
| Toolchain | GCC · LLVM · OpenJDK | Community / Apache | Open · Full ecosystem |
Every layer governed by independent foundations. No single vendor controls any part of the stack. This is what auditable infrastructure looks like end to end.
Organizations running IBM POWER in financial services, government, healthcare, or critical infrastructure sign the ESI Founding Charter. Their compliance requirements — FIPS 140-3, DORA, FedRAMP, SOC 2 — are formally written into the open silicon specification. 20 founding slots. Hard limit.
With organized enterprise demand confirmed, hyperscalers commit their in-house silicon teams to design proprietary chiplets for the ESI UCIe slot. Each hyperscaler builds unique differentiation — networking, AI, confidential compute — on the shared open base. They launch sovereign POWER cloud regions for hybrid deployment.
With chipset supply from fabless partners and a clear enterprise demand signal, OCP-spec ODMs design, validate, and certify complete bare metal platforms carrying the ESI sovereignty designation. Procurement is aggregated across founding members — delivered at cost + 10%.
Intel Foundry, TSMC Arizona, and Samsung Texas each receive equal one-third volume commitments from the ESI program. 5nm-class leading-edge dies for compute and AI. Mature node dies for I/O, security, and analog — optimized by process, not forced to leading edge. US-manufactured silicon at every layer.
ESI is a two-sided ecosystem. The regulated enterprise founding members create the organized, compliance-motivated demand signal. The builder partners create the supply. Each builder category has a distinct role — and a distinct commercial case for being first.
Regulated enterprise is the stickiest, highest-value cloud segment — and it is almost entirely locked out of public cloud today. ESI creates the on-premises sovereign POWER foundation. You build the cloud extension: same ISA, same attestation chain, same compliance posture. Your in-house silicon team designs the proprietary chiplet that makes your offering uniquely yours — plugged into the shared ESI base via UCIe.
The ESI program gives you what OCP server design has always needed for regulated markets: an organized demand signal on one side and a coordinated chip supply ecosystem on the other. You design systems to the OCP methodology you already use. ESI certification adds the sovereignty designation that regulated procurement teams are increasingly required to specify. Your platform qualification compounds across the member pool.
ESI is not a single-fab competition. We are engaging three founding US fabs simultaneously with equal volume commitments: Intel Foundry in Arizona and Oregon, TSMC Fab 21 in Arizona, and Samsung in Taylor, Texas. Each fab receives one-third of leading-edge wafer volume for compute and AI dies — plus mature node business for I/O, security, and analog dies. Founding fab designation positions your facility as core infrastructure of the first organized sovereign compute supply chain.
Hyperscaler, ODM, and fab conversations are happening in parallel. We are structuring founding partner relationships now. If you are evaluating the sovereign compute market — the time to engage is before the founding cohort closes.
Every major technology governance program is eventually joined by regulated industries — but the ones who join first set the agenda. Here is what you get by leading rather than following.
Caliptra — the open-source root of trust from CHIPS Alliance, already shipping inside AMD silicon and mandated by Azure and Google Cloud — is embedded in every ESI processor. At power-on, before any firmware executes, Caliptra measures it, records it, and produces a signed attestation. DORA Article 9, NIST SP 800-193, and emerging FedRAMP hardware requirements are moving toward requiring exactly this. You hand your auditor a cryptographic proof rooted in silicon — not a spreadsheet, not a log file, not your word.
The EU's Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), the US NIST Supply Chain Risk frameworks, and evolving FIPS 140-3 mandates all require demonstrable supply chain transparency for critical infrastructure. Proprietary silicon — no matter who makes it — cannot provide RTL-level auditability. Open POWER silicon with Caliptra can. ESI Founding Members write their specific regulatory requirements into the silicon specification so the next chip is designed for your compliance framework from the mask layer up.
Export control risk is real and growing. Any nation building critical infrastructure on Arm (SoftBank / UK-jurisdiction) or x86 (Intel/AMD, US jurisdiction) faces the possibility of licence terms, export controls, or sanctions affecting their platform. The Open POWER ISA is governed by a member foundation — not a corporation in any one country. ESI Founding Members from regulated jurisdictions (EU, APAC, MENA, LatAm) establish POWER as the sovereign-safe alternative for exactly the workloads regulators are paying attention to.
The first 20 ESI Founding Members hold permanent seats on the ESI Advisory Board. They vote on which security features — hardware root of trust configuration, memory encryption standards, secure boot chains, HSM interfaces — are prioritized in the open silicon reference design. Once the founding window closes, the specification is set and later entrants build to it. The regulated industries that shape the silicon specification will have infrastructure that is natively optimized for their compliance requirements. Everyone else will be retrofitting.
ESI is specifically for organizations that currently operate IBM POWER systems as part of their production infrastructure. If you run IBM i, AIX, or Linux on POWER for mission-critical workloads, you qualify.
Temenos T24, Infosys Finacle, Silverlake SIBS, and IBM i core banking systems — all POWER-native. Clearinghouses, payment processors, and investment banks running IBM Power for trading, clearing, and risk. The world's 16,000+ IBM i banks are the natural ESI founding base.
General insurance, life insurance, and health insurance organizations running policy administration, claims processing, and actuarial workloads on IBM Power/AIX or IBM i. Compliance requirements around policyholder data, reserve calculations, and regulatory reporting make supply-chain transparency non-negotiable.
Hospital systems, academic medical centers, and health insurers running EHR, clinical analytics, and claims processing on IBM Power. HIPAA audit chain requirements, FDA 21 CFR Part 11, and the emerging TEFCA interoperability mandate create pressure for supply-chain auditable compute.
Defense logistics, tax authorities, energy market operators, and national-security agencies running IBM Power. Sovereign silicon is a governance imperative — not a procurement preference. ESI gives government operators a direct voice in the silicon that will underpin national AI and computing infrastructure.
The $5M founding contribution is not a membership fee. It is a capital deployment with a calculable return for both the finance and security functions — independently.
OpenPOWER Foundation membership covers the full POWER ecosystem — from ISA governance and open source software to this silicon program. ESI is not a separate organization. It is the program-level membership tier within OPF for organizations ready to fund and shape the next generation of sovereign POWER silicon.
ESI Founding membership includes the full OPF membership. The table below shows what is added by each track — and what is exclusive to founding members.
| Benefit | OPF Member Silver / Platinum |
ESI Member Post-launch |
ESI Founding Member Founding |
|---|---|---|---|
| OPF Core Membership — ISA, Software & Community | |||
| POWER ISA access & IBM patent coverage | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Working group participation — software, firmware, security, AI | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| ISA governance voting — influence POWER ISA direction | ✅ Silver / Platinum | ✅ | ✅ |
| Open source community access — Microwatt, coreboot, OpenBMC | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Specification development — contribute to OPF technical specs | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| ESI Program Membership — Silicon, Procurement & Sovereignty | |||
| ESI silicon program participation — chiplet development, Caliptra, US fab program | — | ✅ Observer | ✅ Voting |
| Cooperative bare metal procurement — sovereignty-certified platforms at cost + 10% | — | Standard pricing | ✅ Cost + 10% Founding only |
| Caliptra hardware attestation — cryptographic firmware proof, FIPS 140-3 | — | ✅ | ✅ |
| Hyperscaler hybrid cloud access — sovereign POWER cloud regions | — | Standard | ✅ Priority onboarding |
| ESI Founding Exclusives — Founding Window Only | |||
| Compliance requirements authorship — your frameworks (DORA, FIPS, FedRAMP, SOC 2) written into the silicon specification before tape-out | — | — Spec already set | ✅ Direct authorship Permanent credit |
| ESI Advisory Board seat — named voting seat on silicon feature and roadmap decisions | — | Observer only | ✅ Named seat Voting rights |
| Founding designation — permanent recognition across all program materials for the life of the initiative | — | — | ✅ Permanent |
| 90-day advance briefings — silicon roadmap and platform previews before any public release | — | Public release only | ✅ 90 days advance |
| Co-marketing — joint press release and featured case study | Logo placement | Logo placement | ✅ Joint PR + case study |
| Membership investment | $20K–$250K/yr Annual · by tier |
TBD post-launch Includes OPF membership |
$5,000,000 One-time · 20 slots maximum |
ESI is a founding-member program with a hard limit of 20 enterprise institutions. Once the cohort is confirmed and the ESI Founding Charter is signed, the founding window closes permanently. Later entrants join as standard ESI members — without the permanent founding designation, advisory board seat, cost + 10% procurement, or requirements-authorship rights in the silicon specification.
Contact the OPF team directly. We confirm your POWER deployment qualifies and walk you through the ESI Founding Charter.
The ESI Founding Charter is a one-page commitment: confirm your POWER platform use, name your ESI Advisory Board representative, and submit your primary compliance frameworks.
$5M founding program contribution, invoiced through the Linux Foundation. Includes OPF membership for the founding period. Funds the base platform design, tape-out, and certification program.
Your ESI Advisory Board representative joins the first ESI working session to contribute your compliance requirements to the open silicon specification — before a single mask is cut.
The ESI application is intentionally lightweight. We need four things to confirm your founding membership:
20 founding members × $5M = $100M committed capital from the enterprise side. This anchors the hyperscaler co-investment conversation and funds a material portion of the base platform program — without dilutive equity or government restrictions.
Hyperscalers, ODMs, and silicon fabs interested in the ESI builder program — use the form to the right and indicate your organization type. Builder partner conversations are handled separately from enterprise membership.
Tell us about your organization and your interest in ESI. We will follow up within 48 hours.
