The Synopsys layoffs announcement outlined plans to cut the chip design software company's global workforce by about 10% after its $35 billion acquisition of Ansys. The restructuring, approved in November, includes employee terminations and the closure of certain facilities.
Synopsys said most reductions would occur during fiscal 2026, which began November 1, 2025. The company expects to complete the wider program by the end of fiscal 2027.
The financial impact has since increased. In August 2026, Synopsys raised its estimated restructuring costs to between $425 million and $500 million, up from its initial projection of $300 million to $350 million.
Synopsys Layoffs 2025: Why the Company Announced a 10% Cut
Synopsys’ board approved the restructuring on November 9, 2025. The company disclosed the decision in a regulatory filing three days later.
In its November 12 SEC filing, Synopsys said the program would improve business efficiency and allow it to direct investment toward areas with stronger growth opportunities.
The announcement followed its acquisition of Ansys, an engineering simulation software company.
Combining two large technology businesses can create overlapping responsibilities across management, administration, operations and product development.
Synopsys did not identify a complete list of departments or positions it would eliminate.
The company also planned to evaluate its global office locations as part of the restructuring.
In comments reported by The Wall Street Journal, Synopsys described the changes as targeted measures intended to improve efficiency and support its longer-term strategy.
The company said it would support affected employees during the transition.
How Many Synopsys Employees Will Lose Their Jobs?
Initial reports estimated that approximately 2,000 employees could be affected.
That figure was based largely on Synopsys’ workforce of about 20,000 employees before it acquired Ansys.
However, the company later reported a substantially larger workforce.
According to its fiscal 2025 annual report, Synopsys employed approximately 28,000 people worldwide at the end of October 2025.
The increase primarily reflected the addition of Ansys employees.
Applying the announced 10% reduction to that year-end workforce yields an estimated 2,800 positions.
The company did not publish a final departure count or confirm that exactly 2,800 employees would lose their jobs.
The difference between the two estimates is significant for layoff tracking. They should not be treated as separate reductions or added together.
The confirmed figure is the planned 10% workforce reduction, with its ultimate size dependent on implementation.
Synopsys Acquired Ansys in a $35 Billion Deal
The restructuring followed one of the semiconductor software industry’s largest acquisitions.
Synopsys announced it completed its Ansys acquisition on July 17, 2025.
The approximately $35 billion cash-and-stock transaction had originally been announced in January 2024.
Synopsys develops software and technology semiconductor companies use to design, verify, and test advanced chips.
Ansys specializes in engineering simulation tools. Its software helps engineers evaluate how products behave under physical conditions involving heat, electrical signals, mechanical stress and fluid movement.
The combination expanded Synopsys’ business beyond traditional chip design software into a broader collection of engineering technologies.
The company described the expanded business as serving customers that develop products ranging from semiconductor components to complete electronic systems.
Its markets include artificial intelligence infrastructure, automotive electronics, aerospace and industrial equipment.
The acquisition created opportunities to combine software products, but it also added employees, operating expenses and administrative systems that management needed to integrate.
The Ansys Deal Required Regulatory Divestitures
The acquisition faced competition reviews before and after closing.
U.S. regulators raised concerns that combining certain software products could reduce competition in specialized engineering markets.
The Federal Trade Commission required the companies to divest selected businesses, including Synopsys’ optical and photonic software assets and Ansys’ PowerArtist power-analysis tool.
The companies transferred the assets to Keysight Technologies as part of the regulatory remedies.
The FTC finalized the divestiture order in October 2025.
Those transactions were separate from Synopsys’ subsequent workforce restructuring.
However, they were part of the broader process of integrating the two companies and reorganizing operations.
The November layoff announcement followed less than four months after the acquisition closed.
California Layoff Notices Identify Affected Employees
Public employment records show some of the reductions scheduled in the United States.
Synopsys filed notices in California on November 12, 2025, identifying 175 positions at several Sunnyvale locations.
The largest notice involved 172 employees at 675 Almanor Avenue. Three additional notices identified one employee each at other locations.
The reductions were scheduled to take effect on January 12, 2026.
The company filed additional California notices during 2026.
A March notice identified 55 positions scheduled for May 26, while an August notice identified 128 positions scheduled for December 16, 2026.
Taken together, those three notice groups represented 358 positions across different periods.
As of late October, the December 2026 reduction remained scheduled for a future date.
These California figures are part of the company’s broader workforce restructuring, not an additional global layoff program that should be added to its announced 10% target.
They also provide only a partial picture. Synopsys operates internationally, and California notification records do not cover reductions in every country.
Where Will Synopsys Close Offices?
Synopsys identified site closures as another component of its restructuring.
Its original SEC disclosure included costs to close certain facilities as part of a worldwide location strategy.
The company did not provide a complete public list of offices scheduled to close.
Its global workforce is distributed across North America, Europe and Asia.
According to its fiscal 2025 annual report, approximately 23% of employees were based in the United States, with the remaining 77% working elsewhere.
About three-quarters of its employees were engineers.
Because employment laws differ between countries, Synopsys said the timing of reductions would depend partly on local consultation and legal requirements.
The company’s global presence also makes it difficult to infer country-specific job losses from the overall percentage.
Without official regional figures, the number of affected employees in each country remains uncertain.
Restructuring Costs Rise to $500 Million in 2026
Synopsys initially estimated that the restructuring would produce pretax charges of $300 million to $350 million.
The costs were expected to include employee severance, termination benefits and certain office closures.
That projection increased significantly in August 2026.
In its third-quarter SEC filing, Synopsys reported that its board had approved a revised estimate of $425 million to $500 million.
The company continued to identify employee-related payments and facility changes as the principal components.
It did not announce a corresponding revised employee reduction percentage in that disclosure.
For the nine months ended July 31, 2026, Synopsys recognized $236.3 million in restructuring charges.
It also reported $171.4 million in program-related payments over the same period.
Those figures reflect the financial implementation of the restructuring, but they do not indicate how many employees had already departed.
The charges also should not be confused with annual savings. Synopsys did not publish a confirmed savings figure equivalent to the full restructuring expense.
Synopsys Reported Record Revenue in Fiscal 2025
The layoffs were announced during a period of substantial business expansion.
In December 2025, Synopsys reported record annual revenue of about $7.05 billion, up from $6.13 billion in fiscal 2024.
Ansys contributed approximately $756.6 million to fiscal 2025 revenue following the July acquisition.
Fourth-quarter revenue reached about $2.26 billion.
The company’s annual earnings announcement also highlighted a backlog of approximately $11.4 billion.
Chief executive Sassine Ghazi said Synopsys was concentrating on sustainable growth, improved margins and integrating Ansys into the business.
The results show that the restructuring was not introduced because Synopsys had stopped generating revenue.
Instead, management was seeking to improve how the expanded company operated after a major acquisition.
The company also faced challenges involving U.S. export restrictions affecting China and weaker-than-expected demand from certain customers.
Those factors put additional pressure on costs and investment priorities.
Synopsys Revenue Continued Growing in 2026
Synopsys’ subsequent financial performance provided further context.
On August 26, 2026, the company reported third-quarter revenue of approximately $2.48 billion.
That was up 42% from the same quarter a year earlier.
The increase included additional revenue from Ansys, which was part of Synopsys for the full quarter in 2026 but only part of the comparable quarter in 2025.
The company also reported GAAP earnings of $2.84 per diluted share.
In its third-quarter financial release, management raised its full-year revenue guidance to approximately $9.72 billion at the midpoint.
The results show the combined business continued to grow while implementing layoffs and facility changes.
However, the year-over-year revenue increase cannot be attributed entirely to organic growth because the acquisition affected the comparison.
Similarly, the results do not establish exactly how much the restructuring contributed to profitability.
Did Artificial Intelligence cause Synopsys Layoffs?
Synopsys is deeply involved in developing AI-related semiconductor technology.
Its electronic design automation products help engineers create the advanced processors used in AI infrastructure.
The company also offers AI-assisted tools intended to improve design productivity.
However, its November 2025 layoff announcement did not identify direct replacement of employees by AI systems as the primary cause.
Management linked the restructuring to the integration of Ansys, operational efficiency and investment priorities.
The distinction matters because the company was simultaneously benefiting from demand for increasingly complex AI chips.
Greater customer demand for AI-related products does not prevent a technology supplier from reducing overlapping or less strategically important positions.
For Synopsys, the confirmed rationale centered on reorganizing the enlarged business after its acquisition.
What the Synopsys Layoffs Mean for Semiconductor Employment
The restructuring illustrates how employment can change even at technology companies reporting record revenue.
Synopsys gained thousands of employees through the Ansys acquisition before announcing plans to reduce approximately 10% of its combined workforce.
The integration created opportunities to expand engineering products, but it also required management to evaluate overlapping operations, facilities, and investments.
The company scheduled the resulting reductions over multiple years rather than as a single event in November 2025.
TechAmerica.ai tracks other workforce announcements in its 2025 technology layoffs report.
For Synopsys employees, the restructuring created uncertainty over positions and office locations. For the company, it represented an attempt to improve operating efficiency following a major acquisition.
The confirmed plan remains to reduce the fiscal 2025 workforce by about 10%, with most cuts expected during fiscal 2026.
Subsequent regulatory disclosures will clarify the final employee count and full financial impact as Synopsys works to complete the program by the end of fiscal 2027.
