Cadence launches first fully autonomous AI chip engineer

At Computex 2026 in Taipei, Cadence announced that its ChipStack AI Super Agent has reached Level-5 autonomy, making it the first AI virtual engineer capable of fully independent chip design. The agent uses Cadence's AI-powered EDA tools, built with NVIDIA's Nemotron model and secured by NVIDIA's OpenShell sandbox. ChipStack can handle complex chip design and verification tasks on its own. Instead of following step-by-step prompts, it checks results and decides what to do next. It keeps working across tasks like understanding specs, generating RTL, planning verification, formal analysis, simulation, debugging, and design convergence until the job is done. Paul Cunningham, Cadence's senior vice president, said customers are already using AI to help senior engineers tackle tougher chip designs faster. ChipStack AI Super Agent goes further—it evolves from a helper into a real autonomous virtual engineer that does actual design and verification work. Built on high-precision signoff engines and running in a safe, controlled environment, it helps teams speed up innovation with confidence.