U.S. Software and Semiconductor Company Resolves Criminal and Civil Export Control Enforcement Actions With Guilty Plea, Payment of $140 Million

On July 28, 2025, Cadence Design Systems, Inc. (“Cadence”), a leading U.S. provider of electronic design automation (“EDA”) software and semiconductor-design technology, reached a comprehensive resolution with the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) [1] and the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (“BIS”) [2] regarding the unlawful export of EDA hardware, software and semiconductor-design intellectual property technology to the National University of Defense Technology (“NUDT”)—a PRC Military university on the Entity List—in violation of U.S. export control laws. [3] The resolution addressed parallel criminal and civil enforcement actions and included, among other things, a guilty plea by Cadence to a charge of conspiracy to commit export control violations and the