Synopsys, Inc.

Synopsys, Inc., a for-profit software publisher based in Sunnyvale, California, sells electronic design automation (EDA) software tools, semiconductor device simulation software, optical design software, and code analysis tools to federal agencies and defense contractors as a prime contractor (93% of recent awards) and as a subcontractor to defense primes. The company does not hold SBA set-aside certifications and competes in full-and-open procurements across defense and civilian agencies.

Synopsys' capability portfolio centers on proprietary EDA software licenses and maintenance for integrated circuit design, verification, and manufacturing. Representative prime work includes a $291,439 firm fixed-price purchase order from the Defense Microelectronics Activity for annual TCAD Sentaurus software tools (semiconductor device simulation, 3D process, and parallel modules for ASIC and FPGA design) awarded September 2025; a $465,210 Air Force Research Laboratory purchase order for Synopsys software licenses and maintenance (Synplify, Code V, Coverity, QuantumATK, TCAD Sentaurus, and ZeBu emulation systems) awarded July 2023; and a $248,545 Army Research Laboratory order for eight EDA software licenses including Formality, Fusion Compiler, IC Validator, Library Compiler, PrimeTime, and StarRC tools awarded January 2024. Synopsys also supplies optical design software (Code V) to NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and provides static code analysis software (Coverity) across multiple defense agencies.

Customer concentration sits across defense research and civilian agencies with modest concentration. The Office of Naval Research leads by award count (55 awards, $1.8 million combined potential value), followed by NASA Shared Services Center (40 awards, $2.5 million), Army Materiel Command Research Development and Engineering Command (27 awards, $2.6 million), Defense Microelectronics Activity (26 awards, $1.9 million), and NASA Goddard Space Center (22 awards, $2.3 million). These five customers account for 44% of awards but only 8% of combined potential value, reflecting a high-volume, lower-value per-award business model driven by routine software license renewals and annual maintenance subscriptions.

Synopsys holds two Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency Other Transaction agreements. The first, "Automatic Implementation of Secure Silicon (AISS)," carries a $43.7 million ceiling. The second, "Predictive Nanoscale Simulation for the Terahertz Regime (NANOSIM)," valued at $979,795, was awarded April 2023 and focuses on developing predictive simulation capabilities for terahertz-regime technologies. These vehicles are among the most strategically significant in Synopsys' federal portfolio and represent transformative research partnerships with DARPA.

Activity has grown from an average of 18 awards per year in 2022 to 28 in 2024, though 2025 and 2026 to date show only 23 combined awards, suggesting possible reporting lag in the source. Six awards (combined potential value $563 thousand) complete within the next twenty-four months, presenting minimal recompete risk. Combined potential value across all 387 awards (prime and sub, all sources) stands at $135.1 million with $129 million obligated, indicating 95% funding drawdown.

Synopsys subcontracts to major defense primes including Lockheed Martin Corporation (Coverity software renewals for Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet and Terminal High Altitude Air Defense programs), Northrop Grumman Systems (DARPA research project support), the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (DARPA research program support and Sentaurus Device simulation), The MITRE Corporation (National Security Engineering Center services supporting Air Force license tools for ASICs), The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory (technical support for FY24 programs), and Leidos (C5ISR systems research, design, development, and integration). Subcontract work spans software license subscriptions, technical support, and materials support on defense research programs.

The company's federal grant footprint includes a sub-recipient award from the Texas Institute for Electronics under a Next-Generation Microelectronics Manufacturing (NGMM) Center grant, received January 2025.

Synopsys holds five named subsidiaries: Synplicity, Inc.; Ansys Inc.; Coware Incorporated; Virage Logic Corporation; and Firstpass Engineering PC. Ansys, acquired by Synopsys in 2022, represents significant portfolio expansion in mechanical and multiphysics simulation software used across engineering and manufacturing sectors.

Federal work concentrates in Software Publishers (240 awards, NAICS 511210), with secondary work in Custom Computer Programming Services (18 awards, NAICS 541511) and Engineering Services (12 awards). PSC coding reflects the software-centric business: Information Technology Software dominates (155 awards), followed by IT and Telecom maintenance service plans (28 awards) and application development software perpetual licenses (18 awards). All recent prime awards carry no set-aside designation, consistent with Synopsys' position as a sole-source provider of proprietary EDA tools where competitive pressure derives from switching costs and technical lock-in rather than cost-based competition.