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Synopsys SUPPLY CHAIN TRACE

EDA TOOLS🇺🇸 United States · SNPS · NASDAQChokepoint

Synopsys is the world's largest EDA software company by revenue, providing Design Compiler, PrimeTime, and VCS tools that are mandatory for every advanced chip tapeout. Its tools are used by NVIDIA, AMD, Apple, Qualcomm, Intel, and Arm to design chips from RTL to physical signoff. Like Cadence, Synopsys is subject to US BIS export controls restricting supply to Chinese chip designers — a restriction that directly impairs China's ability to develop sub-7nm chips domestically.

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Synopsys

Largest EDA software provider; IC design and verification tools (Design Compiler, PrimeTime, VCS) essential for all advanced chip tapeouts; US export-controlled to Chinese entities

UPSTREAM — SUPPLIERS ↑ · DOWNSTREAM — CUSTOMERS ↓
Chokepoint~35% EDA market
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↓ Synopsys supplies to ↓

Arm Holdings

Dominant CPU/NPU IP licensor; virtually all AI chips in mobile, edge, and cloud use Arm instruction set

Chokepoint🇬🇧
CHIP IPprovides EDA tools to

NVIDIA

Dominant AI GPU designer (H100, H200, B200)

Chokepoint🇺🇸
CHIP DESIGNERSprovides EDA tools to

AMD

AI GPU designer challenging NVIDIA with MI300X

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CHIP DESIGNERSprovides EDA tools to

Broadcom

Custom ASIC and networking chip designer for hyperscalers

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CHIP DESIGNERSprovides EDA tools to

Qualcomm

Leading mobile SoC and edge AI chip designer (Snapdragon X Elite, Cloud AI 100 inferencing)

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CHIP DESIGNERSprovides EDA tools to

Intel

Designs Gaudi 3 AI accelerators and Xeon AI CPUs; TSMC-fabbed at advanced nodes for AI workloads

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CHIP DESIGNERSprovides EDA tools to

Apple

Designs Apple Silicon (M-series, A-series) — TSMC's single largest customer by wafer revenue

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EDGE DEVICESprovides EDA tools to

MediaTek

World's #1 mobile SoC designer by volume; Dimensity AI chips compete with Qualcomm/Apple for TSMC advanced node capacity

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CHIP DESIGNERSprovides EDA tools to

Marvell

Custom AI ASIC and networking chip designer for hyperscalers; key supplier of Arm-based data center networking and storage controllers to AWS, Azure, and Google

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CHIP DESIGNERSprovides EDA tools to

Huawei / HiSilicon

China's leading chip designer (Kirin mobile, Ascend AI); on US Entity List since 2019

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CHIP DESIGNERSprovides EDA tools to (restricted since BIS Entity List 2020)

Cerebras Systems

AI chip startup designing the WSE-3 (world's largest chip at 900,000 AI cores on a single wafer-scale die); targets AI training for national labs, pharma, and research institutions

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CHIP DESIGNERSprovides EDA tools to

Groq

AI inference chip company designing LPUs (Language Processing Units); GroqCloud holds the fastest publicly benchmarked LLM inference throughput

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CHIP DESIGNERSprovides EDA tools to

Biren Technology

China's leading GPU startup; BR100 was TSMC-fabbed at 7nm but Biren was Entity Listed by BIS in Oct 2022, cutting off TSMC access and US EDA tools; now pivoting to domestic fabs

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CHIP DESIGNERSprovides EDA tools to (restricted since BIS Entity List Oct 2022)

Cambricon

China's publicly listed AI chip designer (STAR Market); MLU-series accelerators used in domestic cloud and edge AI; Entity Listed Dec 2020, now fabbed at SMIC

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CHIP DESIGNERSprovides EDA tools to (restricted since BIS Entity List Dec 2020)

DOWNSTREAM — CUSTOMERS

About this company

QWhat is Synopsys's role in the AI chip supply chain?

Largest EDA software provider; IC design and verification tools (Design Compiler, PrimeTime, VCS) essential for all advanced chip tapeouts; US export-controlled to Chinese entities

▲BIS export controls restrict supply to Chinese chip designers

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