Disclaimer: I do not know lkcl personally. I have interacted with him on Twitter, EOMA68 mailing lists, and e-mail, but not in person.<p>I had not kept up with his recent NLNet grants or research with RED Semi, but the content of his mailing lists shows a disturbing conflict. At some point (or perhaps even currently), lkcl was living in a van, became involuntarily committed, and even consulted an attorney in the event that he passes away. I am not a crisis counselor, but anyone who is familiar with autism and FOSS might be interested. It shouldn't ever get to this level of desperation.
I also am not privy to the events between the IP of the company and the "open-sourceness of it. It could be that the company decided to work on a different RISC-V processor, and did run out of money, but knowing lkcl's committment to free software, it is a tricky balance protecting software development before it is released and meeting the needs of the organization. That said, there is definitely a better way.