Nasdaq · EDA · chip design automation (duopoly with Synopsys)
Cadence Design Systems
The #2 EDA company at ~30% share. FY2025 revenue $5.30B (+14%), backlog $7.8B; expanded NVIDIA Grace Blackwell and agentic-AI work, with strong Palladium/Protium hardware. A duopoly with Synopsys.
CDNS Updated Jul 12, 2026 5 AI consumers· 2 recurring
Per the valuechain.wiki graph, Cadence Design Systems is directly linked to 22 companies (0 supply, 22 revenue relationships) and reaches 40 companies within two hops; the links are backed by 11 dated sources, 3 of them primary filings (as of 2026-07-12).
Financials & Segments
- Total revenue · FY2025 revenue $5.30B (+14%)
- Customer concentration · All designers and foundries; duopoly with Synopsys.
- Segments · EDA tools · IP · System design & analysis
Revenue from
- NVIDIA High confidence· Market share 30% · 2024 · global EDA share
NVIDIA designs its AI chips on Cadence EDA tools/IP — a flagship customer behind its ~30% share; the AI-chip design surge is license demand.Confirms KO Seoul Economic Daily Published Mar 1, 2025: Cadence, an AI chip-design leader, reignites growth - AMD High confidence
Supplies EDA tools and IP to AMD.Confirms KO Seoul Economic Daily Published Mar 1, 2025: Cadence, an AI chip-design leader, reignites growth - Marvell High confidence
Supplies EDA tools and IP to marvell. - Broadcom High confidence
Supplies EDA tools and IP to Broadcom.Confirms KO Seoul Economic Daily Published Mar 1, 2025: Cadence, an AI chip-design leader, reignites growth - Alchip Technologies High confidence
Supplies EDA tools and IP to alchip. - MediaTek Medium confidence
Supplies foundry, IP and EDA to MediaTek. - NXP Semiconductors Medium confidence
Supplies EDA tools and IP to nxp. - Texas Instruments Medium confidence
Supplies EDA tools and IP to texas-instruments. - STMicroelectronics Medium confidence
Supplies EDA tools and IP to stmicroelectronics. - GlobalFoundries Medium confidence
Supplies EDA tools and IP to globalfoundries. - Astera Labs Medium confidence
Supplies EDA tools and IP to astera-labs. - Renesas Electronics Medium confidence
Supplies EDA tools and IP to renesas. - Samsung Electronics Medium confidence
Supplies EDA tools and IP to Samsung Electronics.Confirms KO Seoul Economic Daily Published Mar 1, 2025: Cadence, an AI chip-design leader, reignites growth - Apple Medium confidence
Supplies EDA tools and IP to Apple.Confirms KO Seoul Economic Daily Published Mar 1, 2025: Cadence, an AI chip-design leader, reignites growth - Intel Medium confidence
Supplies EDA tools and IP to Intel.Confirms KO Seoul Economic Daily Published Mar 1, 2025: Cadence, an AI chip-design leader, reignites growth - TSMC Medium confidence
Supplies EDA tools and IP to TSMC.Confirms KO Seoul Economic Daily Published Mar 1, 2025: Cadence, an AI chip-design leader, reignites growth - Arm Holdings Medium confidence
Supplies EDA design tools to Arm Holdings. - Credo Technology Medium confidence
Supplies EDA tools and IP to credo. - SMIC Medium confidence
Supplies EDA tools and IP to smic. - United Microelectronics (UMC) Medium confidence
Supplies EDA tools and IP to umc. - Qualcomm Medium confidence
Supplies EDA design tools to Qualcomm.Confirms KO Korea Economic Daily Published Jan 7, 2026: Samsung Foundry wins Qualcomm orders, chases TSMC - Infineon Technologies Medium confidence
Supplies EDA tools and IP to infineon.
Pays to
- R&D engineers & labor (undisclosed) Medium confidence
Design-software R&D headcount is the largest cost — the source of tool competitiveness, and labor leverage versus license growth sets the margin (undisclosed). - cloud & computing infrastructure (undisclosed) Low confidence
Compute infrastructure for verification/simulation — a cost that rises with hardware and cloud verification demand (undisclosed).
Value-chain ripple (2 tiers)
Following node-to-node links up to 2 tiers; each firm is shown once, at its nearest tier.
| Company | Chain | '21 | '22 | '23 | '24 | '25 | YTD |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fortinet | lead2 | +142 | -32 | +19.7 | +61.4 | -16 | +98.4 |
| GigaDevice | lead2 | +7.3 | -17 | -45.1 | +103.8 | +147.9 | +94.6 |
| Credo Technology | lead2 | · | · | +46.3 | +245.2 | +114.1 | +79.2 |
| Samsung Electronics | lead2 | -9 | -14.2 | +20.9 | -26.4 | +212.9 | +77.9 |
| Realtek | lead2 | +19.6 | -33.8 | +56.2 | +19.1 | -6.4 | +73.7 |
| Global Unichip | lead2 | +21.4 | +67.6 | +99.4 | -13.7 | +101.4 | +66.4 |
| Cambricon | lead2 | -48.7 | -21.2 | +77.1 | +420 | +120.1 | +65.9 |
| Cisco | lead2 | +45.8 | -22.5 | +9.3 | +21 | +33.5 | +59.8 |
| Montage Technology | lead2 | -18.2 | -21.8 | -18 | +51.4 | +169 | +47.4 |
| Analog Devices | lead2 | +21 | -4.9 | +23.4 | +8.8 | +29.8 | +46.7 |
| Microchip Technology | lead2 | +27.5 | -18 | +30.9 | -35 | +14.6 | +40.6 |
| Alchip Technologies | lead2 | +14.3 | -8.7 | +365.1 | -18.9 | +0.8 | +34.7 |
| Hygon | lead2 | · | · | +54.2 | +93.4 | +106.9 | +33.6 |
| NVIDIA | lead2 | +125.5 | -50.3 | +239 | +171.2 | +38.9 | +13.3 |
| Ambarella | lead2 | +121 | -59.5 | -25.5 | +18.7 | -2.6 | +9.1 |
| SpaceX | lead2 | · | · | · | · | · | +0.7 |
| Sony Semiconductor Solutions | lead2 | +27.2 | -8.4 | +27.8 | +17.9 | +1 | -2.4 |
| Phison Electronics | lead2 | +26.8 | -10.7 | +45.1 | -6.7 | +418.3 | -6 |
| Mobileye | lead2 | · | · | +23.6 | -54 | -47.6 | -8.5 |
| Will Semiconductor | lead2 | -12.1 | -49.7 | -8.3 | +22.8 | +15.5 | -14.8 |
| Xiaomi | lead2 | -43.9 | -21.1 | -4.6 | +209.7 | -6.9 | -27.2 |
| United Microelectronics (UMC) | lead1 | +43.2 | -40.3 | +39.2 | -19 | +28.8 | +215.1 |
| Intel | lead1 | +6.1 | -46.6 | +94.6 | -59.6 | +84 | +197.7 |
| Arm Holdings | lead1 | · | · | · | +64.2 | -11.4 | +195.8 |
| STMicroelectronics | lead1 | +32.4 | -26.8 | +41.7 | -49.7 | +5.3 | +176.6 |
| Astera Labs | lead1 | · | · | · | · | +25.6 | +148.2 |
| MediaTek | lead1 | +27.8 | -26.6 | +52.9 | +58.3 | +24.9 | +124.3 |
| GlobalFoundries | lead1 | · | -17.1 | +12.5 | -29.2 | -18.6 | +97.8 |
| Renesas Electronics | lead1 | +8.2 | +2.4 | +88 | -13.6 | +23.8 | +84.9 |
| Texas Instruments | lead1 | +17.5 | -9.9 | +6.4 | +13.1 | -4.5 | +81.6 |
| Infineon Technologies | lead1 | +10.4 | -8.6 | +3.4 | -4 | +31 | +75.5 |
| TSMC | lead1 | +12.1 | -36.7 | +42.3 | +92.6 | +55.9 | +43.6 |
| NXP Semiconductors | lead1 | +44.8 | -29.2 | +48.4 | -8 | +6.4 | +35.8 |
| SMIC | lead1 | -29.6 | -7.4 | -18.3 | +169.9 | +98.4 | +5.6 |
| Cadence Design Systems | node | +36.6 | -13.8 | +69.6 | +10.3 | +4 | +22.9 |
YTD as of 2026-07-10 · source: Yahoo Finance
Cadence's thesis is structural — the tollgate every chip must pass. At ~30% global EDA share it forms a duopoly with Synopsys, and the entire chip-design flow runs on its tools, from designers like AMD, NVIDIA, Broadcom and Apple to foundries like TSMC, Samsung, Intel and GlobalFoundries (PDK/DTCO certification). Switching costs are extreme — design assets and engineers are locked to the tools — so revenue is recurring, with FY2025 revenue of $5.30B (+14%) and a $7.8B backlog pre-committing future sales. Growth is driven by the surge in AI-chip design and the expansion of hardware (Palladium/Protium) and agentic AI. The largest cost is design-software R&D headcount, so results turn on license growth versus labor leverage. Re-rating triggers are AI-design demand, the hardware cycle, and the share balance with Synopsys.
Analysis generated from returns as of 2026-07-09Analyst ratings
Consensus: Buy 3 · Hold 0 · Sell 0 · Avg. target $419 · Price $384.17 (07-10) · Upside +9%
| Broker | Rating | Target | Published | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stifel | Buy | $432 | Jun 9, 2026 | Report ↗ |
| BofA Securities | Buy | $400 | Apr 28, 2026 | Report ↗ |
| KeyBanc Capital Markets | Overweight | $425 | Apr 28, 2026 | Report ↗ |
21 of 26 covering analysts rate it Buy/Outperform. Strong Q1 results and the Intel Foundry 14A deal drove a target-hike wave led by Stifel's Street-high $432; average around $387.