US chip design major Cadence bets big on India as local startups gain traction

MC EXCLUSIVE US chip design major Cadence bets big on India as local startups gain traction

US chip design software giant Cadence is accelerating its expansion in India, strengthening partnerships with domestic chipmakers, startups and academia while expanding its role in global product development.

The country accounts for nearly a third of Cadence's global workforce and has evolved into a "microcosm" of the company, corporate vice president and India managing director Alok Jain has told Moneycontrol.

"India right now is almost one-third of the entire global Cadence. Almost every business unit, every function and every technology that exists in Cadence also exists in Cadence India. We are co-owning products, co-developing products and playing a big part in innovation and product development," Jain said.

With a local workforce of around 4,800 people, India is also the company's largest engineering base globally.

The company is seeing rising demand from Indian semiconductor companies as the country's chip design ecosystem expands.

"Traditionally, most of our work was with global semiconductor companies. But over the past decade we've increasingly started working with Indian companies because several local semiconductor, chip design and system design companies have come up. There are also startups doing cutting-edge work in chip design and AI, and we are partnering with them," Jain said.

Its India growth is being driven by two parallel engines — organic expansion, as more engineering responsibilities shift to India, and acquisitions that bring additional engineering talent into the company.

Cadence now operates across six locations in the country and expects expansion to continue in line with business demand rather than fixed hiring targets.

The company is also sharpening focus on India's semiconductor startup ecosystem, which Jain said has expanded rapidly in recent years.

Through the government’s “Chips to Startup Programme”, Cadence provides nearly 100 electronic design automation (EDA) tools across the semiconductor development lifecycle. It also offers technical training, coaching and mentoring.

The company collaborates with IIT-Hyderabad's fabless chip design incubator and connects startups with customers and ecosystem partners through its annual CadenceLIVE conference.

Beyond startups, Cadence's involvement extends to several government-backed semiconductor initiatives. The company is working with C-DAC Thiruvananthapuram on the indigenous VEGA RISC-V microprocessor programme by providing EDA software and supporting silicon implementation and the supply chain required to take the processor from design to fabrication.

Cadence is also supplying software to Socionext and MosChip for the AUM high-performance computing processor, an Arm-based multicore chip architected by C-DAC Hyderabad.

The project is in its final stages and is expected to be sent for fabrication later this quarter, with silicon expected next year, Jain said.

The processor is intended for deployment in C-DAC's cloud infrastructure supporting academia, startups and strategic electronics applications.

The company is also expanding academic collaborations to strengthen India's semiconductor talent pipeline.

It has partnered with IIT-Delhi for an Innovation Lab. The lab combines access to Cadence's design tools with industry-led research, offers engineering mentorship and incubation support to semiconductor startups.

Jain said Semicon 2.0 programme, approved recently by the government, saying it broadens the focus beyond manufacturing and packaging to include talent, intellectual property and product development, which are essential for building a complete semiconductor ecosystem.

Cadence's priorities mirror that vision. Jain said his focus is on sustaining growth momentum in India, strengthening leadership through a "technical vitality" programme and accelerating the adoption of artificial intelligence.

The company is embedding AI into its EDA tools to improve customer productivity while also deploying AI internally across engineering, product validation and business functions to enhance efficiency.

Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!

Find the best of Al News in one place, specially curated for you every weekend.

Stay on top of the latest tech trends and biggest startup news.