Aug 16, 2025 By Rick Shrum 4 min read

Ansys, the esteemed simulation software company based at Southpointe, is stepping up its AI game. And so is the Sunnyvale, Calif., firm that acquired it.

The $35 billion deal with Synopsys, initially announced in January 2024, was completed in mid-July amid great expectations from both sides – as the United States strives to prevail in a likely artificial intelligence race with China.

“This is a new era of engineering. Everything is accelerating,” said Anthony Matarazzo, director of AI and simulation solutions with Ansys. “This is where leveraging with simulation meets EDA (Exploratory Data Analysis). It’s a new era of engineering.”

Although Ansys is now part of another company, Matarazzo said “we’re keeping our name for the foreseeable future” – inside Southpointe, the mixed-use park in Cecil Township.

Speed is, indeed, paramount in the evolving world of AI.

Synopsys, a 40-year-old firm located in the Silicon Valley region of the Golden State, uses software to design silicon computer chips. It said in a statement that “the transaction … (with Ansys) combines leaders in silicon design, IP (internet protocol) and simulation and analysis to enable customers to rapidly innovate AI-powered products. Synopsys is now positioned to win in an expanded $31 billion total addressable market.”

Synopsys said it “remains dedicated to helping engineers innovate, reduce time-to-market and costs, and improve product quality by delivering unprecedented insights into how their products will perform in the real world.”

United with Ansys, Synopsys said it “can now deliver holistic system design solutions for customers in industries spanning semiconductors, high-tech, automotive, aerospace, industrial and more.”

Ansys is poised to benefit as well. The company on Aug. 12 signed an agreement with Nvidia, a leading AI company in the U.S. that provides hardware, software and platforms to speed up AI development.

This accord, according to Ansys, is “to license, sell and support Omniverse technology embedded in Ansys simulation solutions.”

Ansys said it “will deliver easy access to Omniverse technologies and libraries to customers … enabling accessible, smooth workflows across diverse simulation applications.

“By leveraging Omniverse platform capabilities directly from the Ansys interface, teams are empowered to innovate faster, tackle challenges head on, and achieve research breakthroughs.”

Matarazzo acknowledged that before the acquisition, Synopsys was a leader in chip design, and Ansys “had a larger reach of engineers and industries it supports.” He said the companies combined should enhance the integration of AI with physical systems, including robots and self-driving cars.

Massive data centers are being built around the country. Synopsys will work toward improving energy efficiency at data centers and working with customers to scale renewable energy, such as hydrogen and nuclear.

Data centers require large volumes of energy, which could severely impact the PJM electricity grid that 13 northeastern states, including Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia rely upon.

Matarazzo said Synopsys will work toward developing a virtual replica for these models. “We’re modeling all of this between Synopsys and Ansys.

“We’re the backbone of physical AI for any of these intelligence systems. Together, we provide a more comprehensive tool chain that goes across any application.”

John Swanson, a University of Pittsburgh graduate, founded Ansys in 1970 at a farmhouse in Pennsylvania. He named it Swanson Analysis Systems and later switched it to Ansys, the name of its simulation software.

Swanson, who was an engineer at the Westinghouse Astronuclear Laboratory, nurtured Ansys into a company that, in 2024, would post $2.5 billion in revenue and employ nearly 7,000 in the U.S., Europe and Asia Pacific.

An accomplished engineer now residing in North Carolina, Swanson was quoted in a recent Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story that he is not enamored of AI.

“I was designing software for the engineers to develop good products,” he said, adding that if he were handed an Ansys code now, he would not know how to run it.

He sold his company about 30 years ago, and said at that time that Ansys could simulate “anything that was real, that you could feel and touch. And then we got into magnetics and electrical circuits. And that you can’t feel and touch.

“But then, when you’re getting the chip design,” Swanson said, “then it’s all beyond me.”

“AI is a power hog,” he said, “and it’s basically turning back everything we’ve tried to achieve.”

His former company is now working with a prestigious partner, Synopsys, to boost the use and efficiency of artificial intelligence – quickly and efficiently. Thus far, Matarazzo said the acquisition has been operating well.

“I think the feedback I’ve seen has been very energizing, very positive. We’re looking at how we can take the strengths of two very large tech companies and solve problems.

“It’s like peanut butter and jelly.”