The $35 billion Ansys acquisition is complete, readying Synopsys to offer more holistic and integrated silicon engineering solutions
Synopsys has successfully closed on its $35 billion Ansys acquisition, just days after receiving all of the necessary approvals from China, which had been the sole remaining hurdle for the transaction. The closing puts the combined company on the path to offering more holistic and integrated design solutions.
“Today marks a transformational milestone for Synopsys,” said Synopsys Presdent and CEO Sassine Ghazi. “For decades, Synopsys has been delivering breakthroughs in silicon design and IP that have fueled chip innovation. The increasing complexity of developing intelligent systems demands design solutions with a deeper integration of electronics and physics, enhanced by AI. With Ansys’ leading system simulation and analysis solutions now part of Synopsys, we can maximize the capabilities of engineering teams broadly, igniting their innovation from silicon to systems.”
In a video statement on the transaction, Ghazi offered additional perspective on the implications of the Ansys acquisition:”Products are increasingly evolving into intelligent systems, capable of reasoning, learning, collaborating, adapting and acting,” he said. “These intelligent systems are silicon-powered, software-defined and AI-infused products.” Those products are putting “unprecedented” complexity and cost pressures on engineering teams, he added, and they mean that the industry must “re-engineer how products are engineered.” He offered the examples of a combined Synopsys/Ansys being able to support virtual design and optimization of automotive systems “from chips to chassis” before production even begins, and to help chip designers pack more into smaller designs while managing thermal challenges.
In terms of a timeline on integration, Synopsys said that it is is “fast-tracking holistic engineering solutions” and expects to deliver its first set of integrated capabilities for EDA in the first half of 2026.
Ray Wang, research director of semiconductors, supply chain, and emerging tech at Futurum, said that the Ansys deal “is critical for Synopsys as it seeks to build a full-stack EDA solution, enabling multi-physics simulation at both the chip and system levels. Beside the company’s traditional focus on standalone chip design tools, this deal aims to integrate design within the broader context of system functionality. The acquisition will bring core multi-physics expertise and automotive-specific virtual testing capabilities.
“Additionally, the acquisition of Ansys opens the door to new growth opportunities in area of aerospace, automotive, and industrial equipment, potentially expanding Synopsys’s addressable market and business portfolio,” Wang said. “We expect this, in the medium term, to potentially consolidate Synopsys’ technological leadership as well as position in the semiconductor ecosystem.”
The Synopsys/Ansys merger was first announced in January 2024. It is by far the largest recent M&A transaction in the design, test and measurement space. As part of the regulatory approvals gained in the United States and the European Union, the combined Synopsys and Ansys will have to divest some assets due to anticompetitive concerns. Keysight Technologies will pick up the divested assets.
The assets that Synopsys and Ansys have to divest are related to semiconductor design and photonic light simulation, and are widely used. When the transaction received Federal Trade Commission approval, that came with conditions to address anticompetitive concerns about the merger in three areas: optical software tools, photonic software tools for designing and simulating photonic devices, plus power consumption analysis tools.
Specifically, the U.S. FTC required Synopsys to let go of its optical software tools that allow engineers to design and simulate devices that generate, reflect or refract light, such as LED screens; and its photonic software tools for design and simulation of things like fiber optic cables. According to the proposed consent order, that includes Synopsys’ CODE V, LightTools, RSoft, LucidShape, Visualization and ImSym. (Read the FTC’s proposed consent order for the transaction here.) Ansys will have to divest its Register Transfer Level (RTL) power consumption analysis tools, with Keysight picking up those as well.
While Synopsys had expected the Ansys deal to close within the first half of the year, the approval process then got tangled up in new export regulations on electronic design technology exports from the U.S., which would affect Synopsys’ operations in China. At one point in June, Synopsys and several other EDA solutions providers had to suspend their sales to China, resulting in Synopsys pulling its financial guidance for the rest of the year. As of July 2, the company said that it had been able to resume sales because the trade restrictions had been lifted, but it was still assessing the impact to its operating results and sales.
Wang said that China’s conditional approval of the Ansys acquisition “may signal a less confrontational posture amid easing tensions between the U.S. and China.” He noted that there have been a number of recent reciprocal moves by the two countries as they negotiate on trade, including not only the lifting of restrictions on EDA software, but the U.S. lifting export controls on Nvidia H20 chips, ethane and jet engines to China, and China loosening restrictions on rare earth mineral exports.
Revenues from China account for about 10% of Synopsys’ revenues—although the percentage has been declining, due to what CEO Sassine Ghazi has said was due to a combination of the macroeconomic environment in China and the “cumulative impact of restrictions” on the country.
