Synopsys shares rose as much as 7% after the company announced a revenue-sharing deal with OpenAI and lifted its fiscal 2027 revenue-growth forecast above analyst estimates. OpenAI will pay a training subscription fee for Synopsys software, then the companies will tie their revenue to how much the AI model improves chip design, CEO Sassine Ghazi told Reuters.
Who Gets Paid
Synopsys makes software for designing computing chips. Under the agreement, OpenAI will pay a training subscription fee to learn how to use Synopsys tools. When Synopsys customers use the product, the companies will share revenue based on the model’s contribution to a chip’s design, Ghazi said. The deal pairs a fixed training payment with a revenue share tied to the model’s performance.
The product, GPT-Synopsys, is an AI model trained and tuned for chip-design work. Chip design starts with a description of circuits in a code-like language, then moves to arranging billions of transistors on a small square of silicon. The companies said their partnership targets that work.
OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman said in a video announcing the deal that the model will learn to use Synopsys software, helping engineers work through design trade-offs and optimizations. The aim, he said, is “to be able to shave off weeks, months from the design process and to bring more chips to the world.”
Ghazi said Synopsys’ traditional computing tools will double-check the AI model’s work to determine whether a chip will work. “The model needs these guardrails in order to check the physics,” he said. “The need for validating with the highest level of fidelity, what we call sign-off or ground truth, is essential.”
Forecast and Share Price
Synopsys announced the agreement at an investor summit. Ghazi said the company now expects 15% revenue growth for fiscal 2027, above analyst estimates of 11.19% growth, according to LSEG data. Shares climbed as much as 7% after the deal and forecast announcement.
Ghazi said the arrangement “will not be cannibalizing our business” and “will be an upside to our business given we're delivering more value to the customer.” He was addressing how the AI product could affect Synopsys’ existing business as the company presented its revised growth outlook to investors.
Ghazi’s description ties payments to customer use and the model’s effect on chip design. The announcement gave no subscription price, revenue-sharing percentage or estimate of potential product revenue. It also didn’t quantify any change in staffing or engineering employment.
FTC Demands Reported
Separately, The New York Post reported Wednesday that the Federal Trade Commission plans to issue formal demands, similar to subpoenas, asking Anthropic, OpenAI and other AI labs to turn over information. The report cited administration officials and described a sweeping probe into potential risks to consumers.
The FTC, Anthropic and OpenAI didn’t immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. Reuters said it couldn’t verify the report. The reported demands remained unconfirmed, and the article supplied no details about what information the FTC would seek or what action might follow.
The developments concern distinct financial and regulatory matters: Synopsys and OpenAI announced a paid, revenue-sharing product, while a report described possible FTC demands to AI companies. Synopsys’ forecast and share-price increase were reported alongside the deal; the FTC report remained unverified.