EDA · Chip design automation
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· 4 recurring
Per the valuechain.wiki graph, Cadence Design Systems is directly linked to 22 companies (0 supply, 22 revenue relationships) and reaches 43 companies within two hops; the links are backed by 11 dated sources, 3 of them primary filings (as of 2026-07-12).
Annual return · 2026-09-04'21+36.6%'22-13.8%'23+69.6%'24+10.3%'25+4%YTD-6.4%
Money in ▸NVIDIA●Market share 30%AMD●Marvell●Broadcom●Alchip Technologies●MediaTek◐NXP Semiconductors◐Texas Instruments◐STMicroelectronics◐GlobalFoundries◐Astera Labs◐Renesas Electronics◐Samsung Electronics◐Apple◐Intel◐TSMC◐Arm Holdings◐Credo Technology◐SMIC◐United Microelectronics (UMC)◐Qualcomm◐Infineon Technologies◐
Cadence Design SystemsFY2025 revenue $5.30B
▸ Money outR&D engineers & labor (undisclosed)◐cloud & computing infrastructure (undisclosed)○
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Global Unichip | lead2 | +21.4 | +67.6 | +99.4 | -13.7 | +101.4 | +122.8 |
| Fortinet | lead2 | +142 | -32 | +19.7 | +61.4 | -16 | +96.8 |
| Samsung Electronics | lead2 | -9 | -14.2 | +20.9 | -26.4 | +212.9 | +59.7 |
| HP Inc. | lead2 | +57.2 | -26.4 | +16.1 | +12.1 | -28.7 | +50.7 |
| Realtek | lead2 | +19.6 | -33.8 | +56.2 | +19.1 | -6.4 | +47.5 |
| Cisco | lead2 | +45.8 | -22.5 | +9.3 | +21 | +33.5 | +43.8 |
| Alchip Technologies | lead2 | +14.3 | -8.7 | +365.1 | -18.9 | +0.8 | +36.1 |
| Analog Devices | lead2 | +21 | -4.9 | +23.4 | +8.8 | +29.8 | +34.8 |
| Cambricon | lead2 | -48.7 | -21.2 | +77.1 | +420 | +120.1 | +27 |
| NVIDIA | lead2 | +125.5 | -50.3 | +239 | +171.2 | +38.9 | +23.7 |
| Motorola Solutions, Inc. | lead2 | +61.9 | -3.8 | +23 | +49.1 | -16.2 | +22.8 |
| Credo Technology | lead2 | · | · | +46.3 | +245.2 | +114.1 | +18.5 |
| Microchip Technology | lead2 | +27.5 | -18 | +30.9 | -35 | +14.6 | +18.4 |
| GigaDevice | lead2 | +7.3 | -17 | -45.1 | +103.8 | +147.9 | +18.3 |
| Sony Semiconductor Solutions | lead2 | +27.2 | -8.4 | +27.8 | +17.9 | +1 | +12.9 |
| Honeywell Technologies | lead2 | -0.3 | +4.9 | +0 | +10 | -6.4 | +3.8 |
| Montage Technology | lead2 | -18.2 | -21.8 | -18 | +51.4 | +169 | +3.4 |
| SpaceX | lead2 | · | · | · | · | · | +0.7 |
| Hygon | lead2 | · | · | +54.2 | +93.4 | +106.9 | -7.8 |
| Ambarella | lead2 | +121 | -59.5 | -25.5 | +18.7 | -2.6 | -11.2 |
| Phison Electronics | lead2 | +26.8 | -10.7 | +45.1 | -6.7 | +418.3 | -14.7 |
| Mobileye | lead2 | · | · | +23.6 | -54 | -47.6 | -18 |
| Xiaomi | lead2 | -43.9 | -21.1 | -4.6 | +209.7 | -6.9 | -19.9 |
| Will Semiconductor | lead2 | -12.1 | -49.7 | -8.3 | +22.8 | +15.5 | -33.7 |
| United Microelectronics (UMC) | lead1 | +43.2 | -40.3 | +39.2 | -19 | +28.8 | +168.9 |
| Intel | lead1 | +6.1 | -46.6 | +94.6 | -59.6 | +84 | +159.6 |
| MediaTek | lead1 | +27.8 | -26.6 | +52.9 | +58.3 | +24.9 | +152.4 |
| Arm Holdings | lead1 | · | · | · | +64.2 | -11.4 | +130.6 |
| STMicroelectronics | lead1 | +32.4 | -26.8 | +41.7 | -49.7 | +5.3 | +102.2 |
| Astera Labs | lead1 | · | · | · | · | +25.6 | +86.6 |
| Texas Instruments | lead1 | +17.5 | -9.9 | +6.4 | +13.1 | -4.5 | +51.5 |
| TSMC | lead1 | +12.1 | -36.7 | +42.3 | +92.6 | +55.9 | +41.9 |
| Infineon Technologies | lead1 | +10.4 | -8.6 | +3.4 | -4 | +31 | +37.7 |
| GlobalFoundries | lead1 | · | -17.1 | +12.5 | -29.2 | -18.6 | +29.7 |
| Renesas Electronics | lead1 | +8.2 | +2.4 | +88 | -13.6 | +23.8 | +28.2 |
| NXP Semiconductors | lead1 | +44.8 | -29.2 | +48.4 | -8 | +6.4 | +5.9 |
| SMIC | lead1 | -29.6 | -7.4 | -18.3 | +169.9 | +98.4 | -10.9 |
| Cadence Design Systems | node | +36.6 | -13.8 | +69.6 | +10.3 | +4 | -6.4 |
YTD as of 2026-09-04 · source: Yahoo Finance
Cadence Design Systems operates across Nasdaq, EDA, chip design automation (duopoly with Synopsys). It is -6.4% in 2026. The demand side (avg +86.6%) leads the stock (-6.4%), so customer moves come first here. Among connected nodes the furthest ahead is Marvell (+163.4%) and the furthest behind is NVIDIA (+23.7%). If chain logic explains the gap, the laggard is the next propagation candidate; if not, the link itself deserves a second look. A duopoly with Synopsys.
Analysis generated from returns as of 2026-09-04Analyst ratings
Consensus: Buy 3 · Hold 0 · Sell 0 · Avg. target $419 · Price $292.7 (09-04) · Upside +43%
| 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.