Siemens has a dedicated division for electronics design. And they were showcasing their products at DAC, the electronic industry’s premier EDA event, which this year is putting a spotlight on AI.
DAC 2025, the design automation conference, is being held at Moscone Center in San Francisco, getting top billing with a platinum sponsorship. Companies never disclose how much they spend on sponsorships, but I bet it’s at least $100,000 for going platinum at DAC. Siemens had several sessions and a pavilion, which may have been included as part of the event sponsorship.
Marketing aside, attending DAC is an educational experience for a mechanical engineer to see Siemens’ deep involvement in EDA. I had previously only known of Mentor for chip design, which Siemens purchased for $4.5 billion, the most expensive acquisition to date in our industry.
The Siemens pavilion on the second floor of Moscone West featured an immersive experience with an AI-powered kiosk showcasing Siemens’ complete EDA AI platform. Here was a PAVE360 Mach-E digital-twin exhibit—a real Ford Mach-E represented virtually to showcase vehicle system-level co-design.
Here Come the Agents
Siemens launched a purpose-built EDA AI system tailored for semiconductor and PCB workflows, blending generative AI, NVIDIA NIM microservices, and Nemotron models.
There was a clear focus on what Siemens has termed “industrial-grade AI,” building on their annual user conference, Realize LIVE, which they distinguish from the consumer AI most of us are familiar with — and typically find useless for work. Siemens’ AI, on the other hand, is “secure, high‑quality, data‑driven, customizable, and scalable.”
Among all the CAD companies, Siemens appears to be the most committed to integrating AI into their design software. Never has it been more apparent than at DAC 2025, where all the talk centers on the integration of agentic AI into next-generation EDA tools to boost productivity and reduce design cycle time. As Siemens is also a manufacturing giant, it is well-positioned to manufacture what its software divisions design, to the envy of pure software developers. This gives Siemens an incredible advantage, enabling it to transition seamlessly from manufacturing needs to design concepts, software applications, and back to manufacturing.
Innovator3D IC Launch
Innovator3D IC, introduced by AJ Incorvaia in a keynote, enables seamless planning, integration, verification, and sign-off of chiplets and heterogeneous packages.
TechTalk: “Unlocking the power of AI in EDA, on Monday, explored how GenAI would impact electronic and electrical design workflows. Led by NVIDIA’s John Linford, the panel was composed of senior executives from Siemens EDA division: Amit Gupta (VP & GM Custom IC Division), Ankur Gupta (Senior VP & GM Digital Design Creation Platform), AJ Incorvaia (Senior VP, Electron Board Systems), Abhi Kolpekwar (VP & GM, Digital Verification Technologies) and Juan Rey (Senior VP & GM, Calibre).
Abhi Kolpekwar had his session on Monday during which he discussed the increasing complexity of semiconductors, noting that they are now designed in 3D, and reminded users of Questa One, a chip design verification application introduced at Siemens’ User2User North America in May.
It’s only Tuesday morning, and I’m still digesting Monday’s events. Still, I can already tell that Siemens is determined to create a major AI-driven inflection point with industrial-grade tools, full toolchain integration, and next-generation IC packaging.