CPO Will Dominate Scale-Up: Link Budgets For dB And $ Are Key


In the next five years, scale-up interconnects will transition from copper to optical interconnects — primarily co-packaged optics (CPO), with some near-packaged optics (NPO), and perhaps some vertical-cavitity-surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). The demand for AI has become visibly real with Anthropic hitting a $47 billion annual run rate, followed closely by OpenAI and Google Gemini. Anthr... » read more

EDA And IP Numbers Up Again, But Numbers Are More Nuanced


EDA and Semiconductor IP revenue grew 10.3% in Q4 2025 to $5.466 billion, up from $4.955 billion in the same period in 2024, continuing the double-digit run for the tools and IP business that has been underway for the past few years. CAE, the largest EDA category, rose 9.4% to $2.083 billion in Q4, versus $1.761 billion in Q4 2024. Non-reporting IP companies — a segment dominated by Arm �... » read more

One-on-One With proteanTecs CEO Shai Cohen


The acceleration of technology is unprecedented: AI data centers, edge build-out, robotics, photonics, quantum, multi-die assemblies. Semiconductor Engineering Editor in Chief Ed Sperling talks with proteanTecs CEO Shai Cohen about what's changing and what impact it will have. Click here to listen. » read more

EDA and IP Revenue Up 8.8%


EDA and IP revenue grew 8.8% in Q3 2025 to $5.566 billion, up from $5.115 billion in the same period in 2024, according to new data from ESD Alliance. But beneath those respectable, if not spectacular numbers, some interesting shifts are underway. China returned to double-digit growth after several quarters of lackluster sales. But the biggest surprise was EDA/IP revenues from South Korea an... » read more

Navigating Geopolitical Shifts And AI-Driven Growth: Insights From The SEMICON West 2025 Market Symposium


By Clark Tseng and Nishita Rao The 2025 SEMICON West Market Symposium brought together leading analysts and strategists to decode the powerful forces shaping the global semiconductor market. Building on last year’s focus on fabless growth and workforce initiatives, this year’s sessions centered on the rising influence of geopolitics, trade policy, and AI-driven investment. Experts from... » read more

Startup Tips To Get From Seed Funding To Series A, B, C


Startups are often created by experienced engineers who figure out how to solve a technical problem they are dealing with at work, or by PhD candidates in research labs before they have even started their first full-time job. Either way, getting seed money to the tune of a few million dollars is relatively easy compared to securing further rounds of funding and achieving the company’s exit go... » read more

Silicon IP Continues Steady Growth Path


EDA and silicon IP revenue increased 8.6% to $5.089 billion in Q2 2025, up from $4.6855 billion in Q2 2024, according to the ESD Alliance. Total EDA revenue growth was assisted by impressive results in the CAE category, the largest tool sector, which showed 17.2% growth over Q2 2024. “It was another good quarter overall," said Walden C. Rhines, executive sponsor of the SEMI Electronic Desi... » read more

What Does Semiconductor Disruption Look Like?


When conducting interviews for my article on the incorporation of AI within EDA tools, Anand Thiruvengadam, senior director and head of AI product management at Synopsys, said, "AI has the potential to transform how customers do chip design. The entire EDA flow can be disrupted with AI." He is not alone in making this kind of statement. Each year, I do a predictions piece, and I ask about how A... » read more

Silicon IP Revenue Spikes


EDA and silicon IP revenue grew 12.8% in Q1 2025, totaling $5.098 billion compared to $4.522 billion in the same period last year, but the real story was on the IP side, surging 29.6% year-over-year to $1.577 billion. Drilling deeper into those numbers, revenue for non-reporting IP companies — predominantly Arm — jumped 34.1% YoY to $1.031 billion. That was positive news for the IP marke... » read more

TSMC: King Of Data Center AI


Large language models (LLMs like ChatGPT) are driving the rapid expansion of data center AI capacity and performance. More capable LLM models drive demand and need more compute. AI data centers require GPUs/AI Accelerators, switches, CPUs, storage and DRAM. About half of semiconductors are consumed by AI data centers now. This percentage will be much higher by 2030. TSMC has essentially 1... » read more

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