Synopsys unveils agentic AI chip design tools backed by Microsoft and AMD

Synopsys announced two production-ready autonomous workflows that don’t just help engineers design chips, they handle entire phases of the process independently, powered by Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure and already being tested by AMD for next-generation AI silicon. SNPS shares climbed roughly 4% on the news, with notably high trading volume. From copilot to autonomous agent The new tools, branded under Synopsys’ AgentEngineer technology, represent a meaningful evolution in how the company thinks about AI’s role in chip design. Previous iterations, including the Synopsys.ai Copilot, functioned more like a smart assistant. The agentic workflows announced at the 2026 DAC Chips to Systems Conference go further, autonomously managing complex engineering tasks like verification and physical implementation. Two specific workflows debuted. The first is a debug closure process that early evaluations show can cut cycle times by 25% to 40%. The second is an autonomous implementation and closure workflow designed to improve quality-of-results, essentially how well a chip design meets its performance, power, and area targets. Both run on Microsoft’s Discovery platform. The Microsoft partner...