Russian processor design company Baikal Electronics has shipped approximately 85,000 CPUs since its founding in 2012, according to recent reports. While this figure is modest by global standards, it marks a significant milestone for Russia's domestic semiconductor efforts—especially given the challenges the company has faced, including international sanctions and a bankruptcy filing in mid-2023.

As of 2019, Baikal had delivered around 17,000 processors to the Russian market. At that time, the company operated out of a single office with just 81 employees. By the end of 2024, its total shipments had grown fivefold, supported by an expanded workforce of 200 across four offices.

Baikal's CPUs include the Baikal-T1, Baikal-M, and Baikal-S series:

 ● Baikal-T1: a 28nm chip designed for embedded and communications applications, based on the 32-bit dual-core MIPS P5600 architecture.

 ● Baikal-M: a 28nm client PC processor with eight Cortex-A57 cores and Mali-T628 GPU.

 ● Baikal-S: a server-class chip built on a 16nm process, featuring 48 Cortex-A75 cores and six DDR4 memory channels.

The Baikal-T1 accounts for the majority of shipments. Notably, all of the 85,000 processors were manufactured by TSMC prior to 2022, before Taiwan joined U.S. and European sanctions imposed after the Russia-Ukraine war began.

Attempts to smuggle chips back into Russia reportedly failed. One shipment of Baikal-T1 chips was seized in transit from Latvia to Belarus, according to CNews. In addition, 15,000 Baikal-M chips were confiscated in Taiwan, and an order for 15,000 Baikal-S units was canceled.

Despite these setbacks, Baikal has resumed limited production. In April 2025, the company began manufacturing its own microcontrollers, though technical details remain undisclosed. It is also preparing two new chips: the Baikal-L, aimed at laptops and tablets, and the Baikal-S2, designed for data centers. Both will reportedly be fabricated by SMIC in China.

To put Baikal's scale in perspective: in 2024 alone, the global market shipped 262.7 million PC CPUs, 144 million tablet processors, and 1.239 billion smartphone chips.

Whether Baikal can sustain its revival remains uncertain, but its continued efforts highlight Russia's push for greater semiconductor self-reliance.