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Analyst
Lee Simpson
Period: Reporting periods mapped to calendar 2024 Q3 – 2026 Q3 (9 quarters).
- Questions
- 23on tracked calls
- Challenge rate
- 13%3 of 23 questions
- Companies
- 4questioned at least once
- Reporting periods
- 9with questions
These figures cover the whole profile: every tracked question, all reporting periods.
How to read these numbers
Challenge rate is the share of questions that pushed back, pressed for specifics or questioned management’s assumptions. It describes how questions were asked on the calls tracked here; it does not measure whether any view turned out to be right.
Rounding. Rates are rounded to whole percentages, so a small share can show as 0% even when some questions were challenging. The count beside each rate is exact; “none of N questions” means no question was challenging.
No questions recorded. “—” means there is nothing to calculate: no questions were recorded for that period on the calls tracked here. It does not mean there was no activity.
Fewer than 3 questions. A company-level rate is withheld when fewer than 3 questions were recorded for that company; the questions are still counted everywhere else.
Small samples. Profiles with fewer than 10 questions are marked Limited sample.
Reporting periods. Questions are grouped by the calendar quarter each company’s fiscal reporting period maps to, not by the date of the call. Periods without a calendar mapping are listed separately under their fiscal label.
Questions asked
Grouped by company, most questions first. Open a company to read its questions, newest reporting period first.
Showing 23 of 23 questions from 4 companies
SNPSSynopsys8 questions · 5 reporting periods · 3 of 8 challenging
Calendar 2026 Q3
the speed of shift to the Factory 2 opportunity you outlined with licensing and royalties
Show response
Ghazi said Synopsys is in advanced discussions with multiple custom-silicon customers to move IP from license-plus-NRE to license-plus-royalty (Factory 2).
Calendar 2026 Q1
the monetization perhaps on Agentic Play would come on a value-based basis, perhaps even on a token-based basis
Show response
CEO confirmed value-based monetization under consideration for agent engineer. Customers receptive as workflow changes require licensing model evolution from time-based to value-based.
Calendar 2025 Q3
how much of a heads up did you have on this weakness, this design IP slowdown, and maybe how much of this is permanent
Show response
CEO admitted signals were missed during intense 18-month regulatory period with six trips to China. Expects transitional and muted IP year into FY26. Opportunity remains strong but pivot needed.
Is there a specific area that we should be thinking about here? It sounds to my ears, and I could be wrong, obviously, that this is mainly foundational IP
Show response
CEO clarified pivot is across both interface and foundation IP. Key shift is from off-the-shelf to subsystem delivery requiring new business models and higher monetization per engagement.
Calendar 2025 Q2
your first payment appears first of October of this year. But I suppose this rather than being a clean semi-annual coupon, it may include some of the catch-up
Show response
CFO confirmed October bond payment includes partial-period catch-up from March 17 settlement, then regular biannual rhythm.
China sales are now 10% of the mix, I think, 12% in Q1. And you're now talking about a decline in China for the year
Show response
CEO confirmed China will decline YoY in FY25 but full-year guidance reiterated due to strength in other regions. Declined to speculate on margin impact of hypothetical BIS notice.
Calendar 2025 Q1
are you looking at this as an operating margin driver? Or are you looking at this as a product development acceleration
Show response
CEO framed agentic AI as both customer-facing product opportunity and internal efficiency driver, with every function modernizing to capture AI productivity.
It does seem like Chinese growth is flattening off, I think, 12% of sales in this last quarter
Show response
CEO cited two factors: cumulative effect of restrictions and slowing local economy. Confirmed China assumed below corporate average in FY25 guidance.
CDNSCadence Design Systems7 questions · 7 reporting periods · 0 of 7 challenging
Calendar 2026 Q2
where are you seeing the most competitive pressure from some of your peers in contested accounts?
Show response
Devgan reframed toward Cadence's own foundry position gains rather than naming where rivals are pressuring it.
Calendar 2026 Q1
I'm just trying to get a sense for the momentum here and what really is still the early years in this breakout
Show response
Devgan said physical AI will also reinforce data center AI demand and drive significant silicon design activity for EDA and IP beyond just SDA opportunities.
Calendar 2025 Q4
It didn't sound like it would be on a subscription basis. It would be on a sort of value to customer basis. So I wonder if you could maybe just expand a little on that
Show response
John Wall said multiyear subscriptions remain core. AI adds usage-based pricing for incremental capacity. Card models and token models handle consumption. Outcome-oriented packages in services. AI amplifying demand, not replacing products.
Calendar 2025 Q3
it looks as though you're up about 53% year-on-year, doing well in the mix, up to 18%. That feels more than just a sort of return of business post the restrictions on the BIS letter last quarter
Show response
John Wall said China returned to business as usual after July export regulation lift. Anirudh said behavior back to normal, prioritized hardware deliveries from Q2 to Q3. No unusual pull-in activity observed.
Calendar 2025 Q2
do we need a new business model or a different go-to-market strategy to get full value here?
Show response
Anirudh described Cerebrus AI Studio enabling 30-50M instance designs vs 3-5M previously. Samsung and ST as early adopters. RTL generation and verification are key areas.
Calendar 2025 Q1
your main offering is a software and services product, which may not have the same risk from reciprocal tariffing regimes
Show response
Anirudh confirmed software not subject to tariffs. Hardware supply chain diversified during COVID. No expected tariff impact on hardware business.
Calendar 2024 Q4
Is this the sole source of strength for the chiplet reference design? And maybe if we ex that business out of China for this year
Show response
Anirudh emphasized chiplet design is global across all verticals. Started with HPC/AI chips, now expanding to automotive and laptops. Cadence has 15+ years of 3D-IC investment.
ARMArm Holdings6 questions · 6 reporting periods · 0 of 6 challenging
Calendar 2026 Q1
are we looking at this as each agentic flow requires one core? Or could we look at this differently
Show response
Rene explained agents run asynchronous single-core workloads efficiently. More cores means more concurrent batches. CPU chips will grow in core count, driving ASP increases and expanding the TAM.
Calendar 2025 Q3
I see China is maybe 22% of sales this Q. And I was just wondering what is driving that?
Show response
Jason attributed China's 22% share to a major license deal plus strong royalties. Pipeline indicates strong licensing for remainder of year. Deal cycles are 6-9 months and Arm rarely loses deals.
Calendar 2025 Q2
does it make sense to actually stretch the performance here in time and go beyond that 4 tops level?
Show response
Rene confirmed Ethos will scale beyond 4 tops for ultra-low-power edge AI (wearables, battery devices). Zena CSS targets L2-L4 ADAS with strong pipeline. Already has a lead customer signed.
Calendar 2025 Q1
it does look as though this is an increasingly important space for you. So I'm trying to understand why is that?
Show response
Rene explained AMBA is the de-facto chiplet interface standard and CSS is a major chiplet value driver. Declined to comment on unannounced products or M&A speculation.
Calendar 2024 Q4
can you outline just more clearly what the opportunity is -- set is for Arm, including the sell-in of new products
Show response
Rene provided clear detail on Arm's role in Stargate and Cristal Intelligence, explaining CPU positioning and agentic AI opportunity across all endpoints.
Calendar 2024 Q3
trying to understand what contributed in particular to that better-than-expected licensing here.
Show response
Rene said there were no pull-forwards; the beat was about $35M above the -25% guide (actual -15%), RPO rose 10% sequentially, and the year-end licensing range remains reasonable.
ASMLASML Holding2 questions · 1 reporting period · 0 of 2 challenging
Calendar 2026 Q3
Are we right in saying that most of this is coming from new customers as a result?
Show response
Roger said interest is broad and not tied to one customer; Christophe added new low-NA EUV customers are appearing, especially in DRAM.
So can we make a read through to a relative size of a big order intake in Q3?
Show response
Roger confirmed the line includes down payments and is a useful proxy for order intake but called it a lagging indicator and gave no order figure.
Challenge rate by company
Every company this analyst questioned, most questions first. A company-level rate is shown from 3 questions; below that it is withheld.
| Company | Questions | Challenge rate |
|---|---|---|
| SNPS Synopsys | 8 | 38%3 of 8 questions |
| CDNS Cadence Design Systems | 7 | 0%none of 7 questions |
| ARM Arm Holdings | 6 | 0%none of 6 questions |
| ASML ASML Holding | 2 | —Rate withheld: fewer than 3 questions |
Activity by reporting period
Questions recorded for each calendar quarter that companies’ reporting periods map to (not the call date), with the challenge rate for that period. Periods inside the range with no questions are shown as “No questions recorded”.
| Calendar period | Questions | Challenge rate | Companies |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 Q3 | 1 | 0%none of 1 question | 1 |
| 2024 Q4 | 2 | 0%none of 2 questions | 2 |
| 2025 Q1 | 4 | 25%1 of 4 questions | 3 |
| 2025 Q2 | 4 | 25%1 of 4 questions | 3 |
| 2025 Q3 | 4 | 25%1 of 4 questions | 3 |
| 2025 Q4 | 1 | 0%none of 1 question | 1 |
| 2026 Q1 | 3 | 0%none of 3 questions | 3 |
| 2026 Q2 | 1 | 0%none of 1 question | 1 |
| 2026 Q3 | 3 | 0%none of 3 questions | 2 |
- 2024 Q31 question · challenge rate 0% (none of 1 question) · 1 company
- 2024 Q42 questions · challenge rate 0% (none of 2 questions) · 2 companies
- 2025 Q14 questions · challenge rate 25% (1 of 4 questions) · 3 companies
- 2025 Q24 questions · challenge rate 25% (1 of 4 questions) · 3 companies
- 2025 Q34 questions · challenge rate 25% (1 of 4 questions) · 3 companies
- 2025 Q41 question · challenge rate 0% (none of 1 question) · 1 company
- 2026 Q13 questions · challenge rate 0% (none of 3 questions) · 3 companies
- 2026 Q21 question · challenge rate 0% (none of 1 question) · 1 company
- 2026 Q33 questions · challenge rate 0% (none of 3 questions) · 2 companies
Topics
Topics tagged on this analyst’s questions.
- Cloud & AI8
- Innovation & R&D7
- Revenue Growth6
- Demand4
- Competitive Dynamics4
- Pricing4
- Geographic Expansion3
- Trade Tariffs2
- Regulation Policy2
- Macroeconomic2
Show all 13 topics
- Guidance Reliability1
- Capital Allocation1
- Supply Chain1