Synopsys and OpenAI are building an AI model that runs chip-design software itself -- not just one that suggests what a human engineer should try next

Synopsys and OpenAI announced a multi-year, revenue-sharing agreement Sept. 30 to jointly build GPT-Synopsys, an AI model designed to directly operate Synopsys' own electronic design automation (EDA) tools rather than simply suggest what a human chip designer should try next. Per the companies' own announcement, engineers will be able to delegate a design objective and let the system run the tools, interpret the results, implement changes and iterate toward a verified outcome -- reasoning about power, performance and area tradeoffs and then actually making the changes, not just recommending them.

GPT-Synopsys will run on OpenAI-hosted infrastructure and integrate with Synopsys.ai and the Synopsys Autopilot platform. Both companies say customer design data -- among the most closely guarded intellectual property in the chip industry -- will not be used to train the model, and will be encrypted at rest and in transit with configurable retention, audit and permission controls. "The future of semiconductor engineering requires dramatic acceleration of the chip design process without compromising PPA or first-time-right silicon," said Synopsys president and chief executive Sassine Ghazi. "We're using our most advanced technology to improve the systems that power AI," said OpenAI president Greg Brockman. "With Synopsys, we're bringing that work to chip design." Neither company disclosed the revenue-sharing split or a public launch date; the companies say early engagements are underway with unnamed semiconductor customers.

Synopsys shares rose as much as 7% intraday and closed up 4.19%, to $435.50, on the announcement -- helped along by Ghazi separately guiding to 15% revenue growth in fiscal 2027, above the roughly 11.2% analysts had been modeling. It's the second major AI-chip-tooling partnership Synopsys has struck this year, following an earlier deal with Nvidia.