Equity Insights for Self-Directed Investors

Who wins in semiconductor design

Chip design captures more durable value than chip manufacturing, and within design, the EDA "toll booth": Synopsys, Cadence, and Siemens EDA, controlling ~85% of the the market is the lowest-risk way to own the AI semiconductor buildout. Every company from Nvidia to a hyperscaler building its own silicon, still license EDA software to produce a chip. Between the two investable names, Cadence's stronger execution and margins are against Synopsys's larger scale and bolder (if debt-funded) bet on Ansys becoming a second growth engine.