Cadence Q3: recurring revenue up 18% as agents pull work through EDA tools
BenBajarin · x · 2026-10-28
Creative Strategies' Ben Bajarin breaks down Cadence's Q3 2026: guidance raised to 21% revenue growth on a record $8.2B backlog, recurring revenue up 18% YoY (vs 11% last year), and another record in hardware emulation. Management confirmed agentic usage is driving more use of core tools — first clear evidence for the June "agentic EDA" thesis that agents create more billable work inside verification and implementation engines. Cadence also launched Maestro, its own chip-design model family, to keep control of the engineer interface. The next test: whether extra usage converts at renewal.
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