Jan. 11, 2021 9:31 am ET A U.S.-born approach to defining how computer processors work presents a potential steppingstone to chip independence for Chinese tech companies that face growing limits from Washington on buying American semiconductors. The so-called RISC-V technology offers an openly accessible approach to running the brains that power personal computers, smartphones and servers. It is an emerging rival to two, long-dominant proprietary models from Intel Corp. and Arm Holdings Ltd., a British company that U.S. graphics-chip maker Nvidia Inc. agreed in September to acquire for $40 billion. The standard is winning global interest, and early users include Chinese online retail and tech giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. , which developed what some industry insiders consider the highest-performance RISC-V chip in production. Alibaba has said it is using that chip in its data centers to perform artificial intelligence calculations, and is selling versions of it.