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sPEG Index · member

Synopsys

SDS 14/20 · [3 · 3 · 3 · 3 · 2] · ordinal

Established EDA and IP capability, with newly consolidated Ansys operations separated from the core scarcity claim.

Reviewed 2026-09-17 · Next review 2026-12-16 · released speg-index-2026-09-17-v1

Five judgments

Constraint · Moderate

3/4

Established process-linked workflows and IP are difficult to reproduce, but qualified alternatives exist.

Counterevidence: Foundry alliance evidence shows multiple qualified design providers, and acquisition accounting creates a wide GAAP-adjusted gap.

Substitution resistance · Moderate

3/4

Workflow, model, and process migration impose substantial operational burden.

Counterevidence: Foundry alliance evidence shows multiple qualified design providers, and acquisition accounting creates a wide GAAP-adjusted gap.

Economic capture · Moderate

3/4

Current operating earnings support capture, with acquisition effects and adjustments explicitly limiting the inference.

Counterevidence: Foundry alliance evidence shows multiple qualified design providers, and acquisition accounting creates a wide GAAP-adjusted gap.

Persistence · Moderate

3/4

Process-linked workflow integration supports a three-to-five-year case subject to continued qualification relevance.

Counterevidence: Foundry alliance evidence shows multiple qualified design providers, and acquisition accounting creates a wide GAAP-adjusted gap.

Cost of defense · Moderate

2/4

Acquisition integration and the GAAP-adjusted earnings gap make retained economics sensitive to full defense and integration costs.

Counterevidence: Foundry alliance evidence shows multiple qualified design providers, and acquisition accounting creates a wide GAAP-adjusted gap.

Admission gates

dimension floors: pass — C/S/E/P meet 3 and D meets 2.
materiality: pass — Company-level materiality route is documented.
decisive confidence: pass — Every decisive dimension is at least Moderate confidence.
source packet: pass — Minimum admission packet is present for the draft judgment.
current review: pass — Structural review is current at the research cutoff.
material event: pass — No unresolved material eligibility event is recorded at the research cutoff.

Rationale, falsifiers, and next observation

14/20; include, at the admission floor **Perimeter:** integrated silicon-to-systems design, with explicit separation of established EDA/IP from newly consolidated Ansys operations. The company-level route is qualitative; the acquisition's entire revenue increase is not scarcity. **Evidence:** Q3 FY2026 revenue $2.477bn, GAAP operating margin 14.4% versus adjusted 41.6%, R&D $719.7m. The outlook includes substantial Ansys revenue; comparison with the prior perimeter needs care. TSMC lists Synopsys among multiple EDA partners, supporting integration while documenting alternatives. [S1, X1] **Judgment:** C3/S3/P3 for established process-linked workflows and IP; E3 for current retained operating earnings, not adjusted growth alone. D2 explicitly reflects the acquisition/integration burden and wide GAAP adjustment gap. Inclusion relies on the established core capability, not on an assumed Ansys synergy premium. **Review/removal trigger:** integration or funding costs make D1 appropriate, core workflows lose qualified relevance, or evidence shows the economic benefit is not retained. Next review at results, material integration update, or December 16. An acquisition-normalized cash and compensation series remains a priority. Any one-point downgrade changes eligibility; this is one of the two proposed admissions with no score-floor headroom and must be shown as such.

Integration or funding costs that make D1 appropriate
Loss of qualified relevance in core workflows
Evidence that operating benefit is not retained

Next: Assemble an acquisition-normalized cash, compensation, and integration-cost series at results.

Valuation context

PEG: unavailable (qualified reference path not assembled). Economic sPEG: unavailable (paired valuation uncalibrated). SDS is not a valuation input.

Source packet

S1 · Synopsys · Synopsys Q3 results — Acquisition perimeter and GAAP adjustment limits X1 · TSMC · TSMC EDA Alliance — External structural support and competing providers; no unobserved icon-level claims