No victory comes without scars. China is in greater need of its own industrial software giants.

Overnight, the U.S. Department of Commerce quietly updated its export control list, quietly relaxing the export restrictions on EDA (Electronic Design Automation) tools, which are crucial to China's semiconductor industry. This sudden "policy shift" has stirred up a huge wave in the industry.

Some voices believe that this is a signal that domestic EDA software is about to mature, and the U.S. is worried that the "stranglehold" will fail, so it has taken the initiative to relax the restrictions. After all, from a historical perspective, every technological blockade has accelerated independent innovation - just as Dassault's suspension of supply in 2019 gave rise to the rise of Zhongwang CAD, and the Autodesk data migration incident in 2022 promoted the development of domestic cloud CAD.

However, peeling off the sugar - coated appearance, the reasons for the U.S. policy shift are complex, involving both commercial interests and the recalibration of market strategies.

We need to think carefully about these questions: Will the "substitution window period" for domestic enterprises be compressed? Does the temporary relaxation mean we can rest easy? Doesn't China need its own industrial software giants?

The Cold Winter is Delayed: Policy "Relaxation" under Commercial Logic

According to statistics from Xinchao IC, the stock prices of listed companies in the EDA field have all declined to varying degrees after the policy was announced. The capital market's voting with its feet reflects the anxiety about short - term games.

But the industrial circle needs to have a clearer understanding - Is the lifting of the ban a tactical retreat or a non - strategic abandonment? The birth of a chip starts with invisible software, and the crisis of a broken chain in China's design tools will trigger a suffocation that spreads from the upstream to the entire technology industry.

The position of EDA in the value chain determines its strategic significance:

Firstly, there is the technological leverage effect: In 2024, the global EDA market size was only $15.7 billion, yet it supported a semiconductor industry worth $574 billion and an electronic system industry worth trillions of dollars. This "using a small effort to move a large object" characteristic makes it the underlying fulcrum of the entire technology industry.

Secondly, not having EDA is like "going to war without weapons": As semiconductor processes break through to the 3nm/2nm nodes, EDA technology has evolved from a traditional design tool to an intelligent hub integrating AI algorithms and cloud architectures. The cost of designing a 3nm chip is already close to $1 billion, and EDA tools and verification processes account for nearly 40% of the investment. Today, the suspension of EDA supply means that the technological blockade has extended to the most upstream design link of the semiconductor industry, posing a threat closer to the source.

When the blockade is too strict, it will force China to accelerate independent R & D. A moderate "relaxation" may be intended to make some Chinese chip design enterprises develop a path - dependence, delaying their speed and determination to fully switch to domestic EDA tools, and buying time for the U.S. to maintain long - term technological suppression.

The three EDA giants (Synopsys, Cadence, Siemens EDA) have been deeply involved in the Chinese market for many years, and their annual revenue contribution is as high as billions of dollars. A continuous and high - intensity blockade is like cutting off one's own financial resources and giving away the market share cultivated over the years.

Allowing the export of relatively mature tools or those for which China already has a certain substitution ability can not only meet the profit needs of foreign giants but also continue to strangle China at key nodes such as advanced processes and GAA transistor architectures, just like a precisely controlled faucet where the flow can be adjusted but the valve is still in control.

Just as it is said in "On Protracted War": "The enemy becomes more sophisticated as the war goes on, and so must we." Or the form of the struggle may change, but the core demand for technological self - control has never changed.

Domestic Industrial Software: Stubborn Growth against the Wind

EDA, CAD, CAE, CAM, MES, PLC... These seemingly cold combinations of letters have long gone beyond the scope of simple tools. They build a complete digital lifeline for products from the conceptual prototype to the actual finished product, and more importantly, they carry the core process parameters and knowledge accumulation related to the national lifeline.

If the lithography machine is the "heart" of chip manufacturing, then EDA is the "brain" of chip design - without EDA, even the most basic chip design will be extremely difficult.

The lifting of the ban does not mean safety. However, it has to be said that although the cost of dependence is heavy and profound, the news of the lifting of the ban has indeed weakened the sense of urgency of many people, and the mentality of some enterprises has also undergone subtle changes: Some chip design companies have stockpiled international EDA licenses for three years, and may consider slowing down the procurement of domestic tools after the ban is lifted. If there is no autonomy, the deeper innovation blockage will be even more regrettable. The high cost will eventually be passed on to the end - products layer by layer, and it may also weaken the global competitiveness of "Made in China".

The "2025 Domestic EDA Enterprise Map" compiled by Xinchao IC covers nearly 70 Chinese enterprises such as Huada Jiutian, Galenica Semiconductor, Guowei Group, Guangli Microelectronics, CoreHedge, Jiutongfang, Xingxin, Lixin, Core - and - More Technology, Banxin, Hejian Industrial Software, Unisoc, Origin Quantum, Anlu Technology, Feipu Electronics, Dongfang Jingyuan, SpeedStone Technology, Fudan Microelectronics, Gowin Semiconductor, Core - Initium, Zhongke Xinyun, Chaocai Information, Taichi Group. Among them, there are both the backbone forces of domestic EDA and the sparks that can start a prairie fire.

In the core "cornerstone" field of semiconductors such as EDA, building an independent and controllable complete system is not an option but the only way for survival and development. The tenacious growth of these enterprises under the blockade is a vivid portrayal of China's spirit of self - reliance in science and technology.

Compiled and produced by Xinchao IC

It has to be said that international giants do have an overwhelming advantage - by deeply binding the chip manufacturing process through the tool chain, they form an ecological closed - loop of "tools - IP library - foundry". Domestic tools still need time and technological precipitation to truly integrate into the design and manufacturing system of international mainstream wafer fabs.

Domestic EDA has international competitiveness in specific "point tools" such as analog circuit design and memory compilers, but domestic tools have not fully penetrated into high - end processes. There is still a generational gap with international giants in the full - process solutions for supporting the design of the most advanced digital chips.

No Victory Comes without Scars

The competition in the chip industry is ultimately a competition of root technologies. And the growth of the root starts from the most basic soil.

History has warned us countless times: True independence in the technological field is never about relying on the charity of the opponent or a temporary loosening. In the early days of the space race, the Soviet Union once briefly relied on Western computing equipment, but the temporary "relaxation" ultimately could not replace its own unremitting pursuit of technological independence.

At this moment, the tiny crack in the U.S. EDA tools is by no means a generous influx of free air, but the fleeting quicksand in the hourglass of fate. What we catch should not be a warm bed of dependence, but a torch for accelerating research.

We should rationally view the scope of the "relaxed" tools. When the iron curtain of technological blockade is torn open by precise calculation, our only response is to conduct more intensive R & D, have more tenacious cooperation, and accumulate more talents. We should temper every glimmer of "relaxation" into a sharp blade for breakthrough. The real "relaxation" will only come when we firmly hold the core technology in our hands.

Mr. Lu Xun inspired us: "There is no path on the ground. When more people walk on it, a path is formed." The path of EDA requires more talents to follow one after another. No victory comes without scars, but we have no choice but to win.

This article is from the WeChat official account "Xinchao IC", author: Yixiu. It is published by 36Kr with permission.