Japanese semiconductor company Rapidus and Cadence have announced a collaboration to integrate the EDA tool maker’s InnoStack AI Super Agent into the Rapidus AI-Agentic Design Solution (Raads), targeting advanced-node system-on-chip (SoC) design.
Rapidus & Cadence To Slash SoC Design Turnaround Time With AI
The partnership combines Rapidus’ AI-native design and manufacturing ecosystem for advanced-node semiconductors with Cadence’s agentic AI design orchestration technology, aiming to improve productivity, accelerate time-to-market and enhance design quality across the SoC design lifecycle. As part of the collaboration, the Japanese chipmaker is targeting up to a 2X improvement in design turnaround time compared to traditional design flows.
As part of the announcement, Rapidus is expanding its Raads lineup with two new tools, Raads Navigator and Raads Indicator, intended to support quality assurance and assist designers in resolving design issues. Both tools have been integrated with the Cadence InnoStack AI Super Agent to enable coordinated design orchestration across SoC workflows, covering tasks from early architectural exploration through implementation and signoff.
The integration is intended to help design teams manage complexity associated with advanced-node development, improve design predictability and support engineering productivity.
Both companies are scheduled to discuss the collaboration at CadenceLIVE Japan 2026, where Dr. Atsuyoshi Koike, representative director and CEO of Rapidus, will deliver a keynote addressing how it is developing Raads in conjunction with Cadence’s agentic AI and electronic design automation (EDA) tools.
Established in 2022, Rapidus is a Japanese semiconductor company backed by 8 major Japanese companies – namely Denso, Kioxia, MUFG Bank, NEC, NTT, SoftBank, Sony, and Toyota – as well as the Japanese government, with the goal of successfully producing leading-edge 2nm silicon by 2027.
Pokdepinion: Chipmaking is an extremely expensive business these days, and it looks like Japan is dead set on returning back to the glory in the late 20th century.
