Synopsys & Apple
Synopsys provides the Electronic Design Automation (EDA) software that Apple's silicon team uses to design every A-series and M-series chip. EDA tools are the CAD software of semiconductors; without them, managing the complexity of a chip with 16 billion-plus transistors is not possible. Apple Silicon employs approximately 12,000 engineers whose core design workflow depends on Synopsys and Cadence tools.
Why it matters: Apple's vertical integration strategy of designing custom chips rather than buying off-the-shelf silicon from Arm or Qualcomm is only viable because EDA tools have advanced to manage extraordinary design complexity. Synopsys and Cadence hold a near-duopoly on EDA, making them critical infrastructure for every major semiconductor designer including Apple, NVIDIA, and AMD.