Synopsys demonstrated fully autonomous chip-design verification agents at the DAC Chips to Systems Conference on July 26, built with Nvidia's agentic AI infrastructure. The orchestrator agent runs the entire verification cycle independently, compressing weeks of work and validating RTL up to 50 times faster while improving coverage by an additional 20%. The company also introduced an autonomous thermal-management workflow and an analog/mixed-signal flow that boosts productivity up to three times, alongside GPU acceleration across more than 20 EDA and multiphysics products. Revenue climbed 42% year-over-year in the fiscal 2026 second quarter, prompting raised full-year guidance, while fiscal 2025 revenue reached nearly $7.1 billion. Yet the stock carries a roughly 12% year-to-date decline even as the company keeps gaining ground in the tools that design nearly every AI chip. That gap between what the business is doing and where the shares sit is the story here.
Qualcomm v. Arm jury trial begins, with billions of dollars at stake over royalty suspension claim
The jury trial in the lawsuit brought by U.S. semiconductor giant Qualcomm against British chip design firm Arm Holdings began on the 5th in a federal court in Delaware. Qualcomm alleges that Arm failed to provide semiconductor testing tools it was contractually obligated to supply, and that when it notified Qualcomm in 2024 of the termination of a key licensing agreement, it leaked that information to the media, harming negotiations over a chip deal with Meta Platforms. In this lawsuit, Qualcomm is seeking the right to suspend royalty payments to Arm for up to five years, and the amount involved could reach billions of dollars. In her opening statement, Qualcomm attorney Karen Dunn said Arm executives referred to Qualcomm as an "enemy" in internal documents and were concerned about a sharp drop in royalty revenue. In response, Arm attorney Greg Locascio countered that he would present evidence showing Qualcomm has in fact suffered no damages. The jury trial is scheduled to last five days and marks a new phase in the two companies' long-running dispute.
ARM · Regulation · Negative Qualcomm's lawsuit seeks to suspend royalty payments to Arm for up to five years, potentially costing Arm billions in licensing revenue.
QCOM · Regulation · Positive Qualcomm is the plaintiff seeking the right to suspend royalty payments to Arm for up to five years, potentially saving billions.
Synopsys Signs $1 Billion Accelerated Share Repurchase With JPMorgan
Synopsys has entered into a $1 billion accelerated share repurchase agreement with JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association. Under the terms of the ASR, the Sunnyvale, California-based chip design software company will receive an initial delivery of approximately 1,735,000 shares, with any remainder to be settled on or before January 5, 2027. The final number of shares Synopsys repurchases will be based on the average of its daily volume-weighted average share prices during the repurchase period, less a discount. Synopsys trades on Nasdaq under the ticker SNPS.
Rapidus Partners with 17 Companies Including Toshiba on Semiconductor Design
Rapidus, which aims to mass-produce advanced semiconductors, announced on the 5th that it will partner with 17 semiconductor design-related companies in Japan and abroad, including Toshiba. The partners include Toshiba Information Systems, a Toshiba subsidiary, as well as Dai Nippon Printing, TOPPAN, and major U.S. semiconductor design firms Synopsys and Cadence Design Systems. The aim is to strengthen its support system spanning everything from the design to the manufacturing of advanced semiconductors in line with customer needs, thereby winning more orders. Going forward, it plans to work with its partners to support customers' semiconductor design and increase the volume of production contracted to Rapidus.
Qualcomm Licenses Huawei's LogicFolding Chip Patents in Cross-License Deal
Qualcomm Inc. has agreed to license patents underpinning Huawei Technologies Co.'s LogicFolding chipmaking technique as part of a multiyear cross-license agreement between the two chipmakers. A Huawei spokesperson said Monday that the deal spans technologies related to 5G devices, AI services, near- and co-packaged optics and networks. The agreement helps validate the Shenzhen-based company's chipmaking capabilities, with Huawei viewing its new architecture as a breakthrough that boosts semiconductor performance and narrows the gap with industry leaders such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. Huawei did not disclose the value of the cross-license agreement, which is subject to US Federal Trade Commission review under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act, applying to deals valued at more than $133.9 million. The spokesperson said Huawei expects the overall contract value of all its patent licensing agreements to exceed $6.9 billion following the deal with Qualcomm.
Cadence Launches RTL Generation Agent in ChipStack AI Super Agent
Cadence Design Systems introduced a new RTL Generation Agent within its ChipStack AI Super Agent in late September 2026, automating front-end digital design and verification from natural language. The announcement of the RTL Generation Agent came on 22 September 2026, extending ChipStack from verification into spec-to-RTL creation and updates, with early evaluations lined up with customers including Honda. Separately, Cadence tools helped Global Unichip Corp. deliver custom AI accelerators and hyperscale silicon on TSMC's advanced process technologies. Cadence's narrative projects $8.4 billion in revenue and $2.0 billion in earnings by 2029, requiring 12.9% yearly revenue growth and about a $0.6 billion earnings increase from $1.4 billion today, with a $405.47 fair value implying 15% upside to its current price. Some of the lowest ranked analysts were already assuming revenue of about US$8.1 billion and earnings near US$1.7 billion by 2029.
Artificial Intelligence › AI Compute & Accelerator Silicon Technology
CDNS · Technology · Positive Cadence launched a new RTL Generation Agent within ChipStack, extending its AI tooling from verification into spec-to-RTL creation.
CDNS · Capital · Positive Cadence's narrative projects $8.4B revenue and $2.0B earnings by 2029 with a $405.47 fair value implying 15% upside.
3443.TW · Demand · Positive Cadence tools helped Global Unichip deliver custom AI accelerators and hyperscale silicon on TSMC advanced processes.
Synopsys Lands Billion-Dollar Amazon and OpenAI Deals, Lifts FY27 Outlook
Synopsys unveiled a $1 billion multi-year deal with Amazon and a multi-year agreement with OpenAI, sending its shares up 12.78 percent on Thursday to close at $490.54 apiece. The Amazon agreement expands Synopsys' silicon IP business, with Amazon as its lead customer, and the two will also collaborate on applying AI across silicon-to-system engineering workflows. The OpenAI deal covers development and delivery of the GPT-Synopsys model for chip design, combining OpenAI's frontier AI with Synopsys' EDA tools, under a revenue-sharing arrangement and go-to-market collaboration. The deals bolstered Synopsys' revenue growth outlook for fiscal year 2027, with the company targeting revenues between $11 billion and $11.2 billion, an implied increase of 13 percent to 15 percent from the $9.715 billion midpoint target for full fiscal year 2026, and non-GAAP earnings per share of $19.04 to $19.12 versus $15.07 guidance for the year earlier. Analysts raised price targets after the news, including Deutsche Bank to $640 from $590, Rosenblatt to $620 from $570, KeyBanc to $605 from $600, and Bank of America to $600 from $500.
SNPS · Capital · Positive The deals lifted Synopsys' FY27 revenue and EPS outlook, and analysts including Deutsche Bank, Rosenblatt, KeyBanc and BofA raised price targets.
SNPS · Demand · Positive Synopsys unveiled a $1 billion multi-year Amazon deal and a multi-year OpenAI agreement, concrete customer orders expanding its silicon IP and EDA business.