EDA Revenue Up 12.7%; APAC Roars Back

Worldwide EDA and semiconductor IP revenue reached $5.748 billion in Q1 2026, a 12.7% increase compared to the same period in 2025.

The key driver continues to be demand for tools used to create AI server chips, with computer-aided engineering up 15.5% to $2.018 billion. There was a noticeable bump in Chinese sales due to a relaxation of export restrictions, rising 31% to $508 million, versus $388 million in Q1 2025.

“At a high level, growth was stronger than we’ve seen this last year,” said Wally Rhines, Executive Sponsor of the SEMI Electronic Design Market Data report and CEO of Silvaco Group. “The run rate is over $22 billion. In the past, the run rate was more like $10 billion. The four-quarter moving average is 10.3%, so this is above the moving average.”

Strength was consistent across the globe. “Japan was the only region that didn’t grow,” Rhines said. “But if you exclude SIP, everything grew, and most of that was in the double digits.”

Sales in South Korea and India were flat, as well, but that hasn’t changed much in recent years. In Korea, memory makers Samsung and SK hynix saw their DRAM revenues increase, but that does not typically impact design tools. And in India, the underlying explanation appears to be more about reporting than a reflection of the regional market, because many of the efforts underway there involve multi-national companies that don’t break out their numbers by region for designs that can span more than one country.

Fig. 1: Revenue by region and by category

By category:

• IC physical design and verification grew 8.3% to $751.3 million;
• PCB and MCM revenue increased 4.8% to $419.2 million;
• SIP increased 14.1% to $2.332 billion, and
• Services grew 6.5% to $226.4 million.

By region, the Americas grew 10.2% to $2.434 billion; EMEA grew 17.6% to $766.4 million; Japan decreased 9.9% to $283.1 million, and Asia/Pacific grew 17.7% to $2.264 billion.

Fig. 1: Revenue by region and by category. Source: EDMD

Employment across the industry increased 12.6% in Q1 to 72,544 people, up 12.6% from the same period in 2026.

Fig. 2: Q1 2026 revenue by segment and region. Source: EDMD

Fig. 3: Four-quarter moving average. Source: EDMD