By Cynthia Kim and Hyunjoo Jin
SEOUL, July 7 (Reuters) – U.S. chip design giant Synopsys plans to stop offering a suite of software to control manufacturing processes used by global semiconductor makers, six sources briefed on the matter said, as it seeks to “redirect resources to higher-margin offerings such as AI design.”
Synopsys informed more than 10 chipmakers, including Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Kioxia Holdings Corp and Qorvo Inc., in April and May of the “end-of-life” move, which means Synopsys will no longer provide new versions in the future and will only fulfill maintenance obligations, two of the sources said.
The affected products include the Equipment Engineering System (EES) and Fault Detection and Classification (FDC), a suite of automation software that acts as the central nervous system of semiconductor factories to monitor and detect anomalies before they lead to costly defects, the two sources said.
The company has already laid off a few dozen employees, three of the sources said, one of whom added that Synopsys plans to complete discussions with each chipmaker about maintenance commitments by “July.”
Synopsys is discontinuing some legacy manufacturing analytics products to focus its resources on products with the highest value, a company spokesman told Reuters in a statement, without naming the products.
The move underscores a changing balance in the semiconductor software industry, with vendors investing more in AI design technologies while some chipmakers are increasingly developing manufacturing software in-house.
“While we are discontinuing certain manufacturing analytics products, which are legacy diagnostic tools not included in our customers’ critical production paths, we continue to invest in new capabilities in this area of our portfolio and in doing so will honor all existing contract and support obligations,” the Synopsys spokesperson said.
The company declined to disclose whether there were any job cuts.
CUSTOMERS WANT TO DEVELOP THEIR OWN TOOLS
Synopsys began offering the EES product after acquiring semiconductor manufacturing solutions from South Korea’s BISTel for an undisclosed amount in 2021.
One of the sources said Synopsys wanted to free itself from support and maintenance obligations associated with IP services and dedicate engineers to high-margin AI design. Synopsys completed its $35 billion purchase of engineering software company Ansys in 2025.
That person and a second source said removing the software could lead to some decline in production yield for chipmakers because the software would need to be constantly maintained, updated and patched.
However, four of the other sources said they did not expect any impact on production at major chipmakers.
One of the sources said the decision was made in part because improving EES service would require chipmakers to share closely guarded manufacturing data. Some customers, such as Samsung, also developed their own internal tools, impacting the competitiveness of Synopsys’ offerings, two sources said.
A Samsung spokesperson confirmed the end-of-life decision and said active discussions with Synopsys about the product’s end-of-life are underway. Samsung has established compatible “alternatives” and there will be “no negative impact on production,” said the spokesman when asked whether production yields could fall.
SK Hynix declined to comment. Kioxia and Qorvo did not respond to requests for comment.
For decades, Synopsys has been a major supplier of software for determining the arrangement of the tens of billions of transistors that make up chips that can be 2,000 times smaller than the width of a strand of human hair.
In March, Synopsys unveiled technology that it said would pave the way for AI agents to take on many chip manufacturing tasks.
(Reporting by Cynthia Kim and Hyunjoo Jin in Seoul, Wen-Yee Lee in Taipei and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Brenda Goh and Jamie Freed)
https://finance.yahoo.com/technology/ai/articles/synopsys-cut-chip-fab-manufacturing-061831382.html
