Synopsys and OpenAI sign deal for AI chip-design model

Synopsys, one of the world’s largest makers of software for computer chip design, announced on Wednesday a deal with OpenAI to develop an artificial intelligence model trained specifically for chip-design tasks, as Reuters reports.

The model, called “GPT-Synopsys”, will learn to use Synopsys’s software tools — from describing a circuit in code to placing billions of transistors on silicon — with the aim of helping engineers cut weeks and months from the design process and “bring more chips into the world”, as OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman put it, according to Reuters.

In an interview with Reuters, Synopsys chief executive Sassine Ghazi said OpenAI will pay the company a training subscription fee, while when Synopsys clients use the product, the two companies will share the revenue according to how much the model improves a chip’s design. Ghazi stressed that the deal will not cannibalise the company’s existing business.

The announcement was made at an investor summit, where Ghazi also unveiled expectations of 15% revenue growth for fiscal 2027, above analysts’ forecasts — news that sent Synopsys shares up by as much as 7% after the announcement, Reuters reports.