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Artificial intelligence agents are increasingly taking the wheel in designing China’s next-generation semiconductors, as Beijing and domestic technology firms accelerate efforts to integrate AI into chip design software to bolster national self-sufficiency.
Empyrean Technology, China’s top maker of electronic design automation (EDA) tools, has been accelerating the chip design process by using AI-optimised algorithms and agentic tools, according to company chairman Liu Weiping.
By applying an AI agent to its simulation and layout tools, the company slashed the time needed for a circuit layout task from four weeks to just one week, Liu said.
Agentic AI has brought a “paradigm shift” to chip design, moving away from “humans operating tools” to “humans commanding agents”, Liu said at the 2026 International Integrated Circuit Innovation Expo in Shenzhen on Wednesday.
This shift would also apply to the business model of the industry, which was changing from the traditional software licence model towards a new model based on token consumption with agentic EDA, Liu said.
Empyrean was developing an agentic EDA platform, which the company considered core to its future strategy, that would allow its own agentic tools to work with its partners’ agents, according to Liu.
EDA is the highly specialised software that engineers use to design and test microchips before they are manufactured. Developing a domestic alternative has become a top priority for Beijing because the global EDA market is dominated by Western players such as Synopsys, Cadence Design Systems and Siemens EDA.
Empyrean’s moves came as Beijing seeks to leverage AI to supercharge its drive for self-reliance in core technologies including semiconductors.
An action plan published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Friday called for deeper integration between AI and software, including industrial software like EDA and computer-aided design tools, with the goal of moving up to “the high end of the global value chain by 2030”.
The rise of AI was redefining traditional software and its development model, presenting a “historic opportunity to reshape the competitive landscape and leapfrog” rivals, MIIT official Wang Weiwei said at a press conference on Friday.
The global EDA leaders have also been actively leveraging AI agents in their chip design tools.
US giant Cadence in June introduced its ChipStack AI Super Agent, hailing it as the industry’s first “Level-5” autonomous agentic AI design engineer that is capable of independently executing complex chip design verification workflows.


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Agentic AI is creating a ‘paradigm shift’ in semiconductor design, chairman of domestic EDA leader Empyrean Technology says


Agentic AI is creating a ‘paradigm shift’ in semiconductor design, chairman of domestic EDA leader Empyrean Technology says.


Beijing pushes AI-assisted chip design as part of self-sufficiency drive

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Agentic AI is creating a ‘paradigm shift’ in semiconductor design, chairman of domestic EDA leader Empyrean Technology says

Agentic AI is creating a ‘paradigm shift’ in semiconductor design, chairman of domestic EDA leader Empyrean Technology says