Currently at all-time peak NRR of 110%.
Cadence Design Systems is below the Dev Tools Public median by -2.5pp (cell median: 113%)
Cadence Design Systems (CDNS) is a dev tools company at the public stage. As of its most recent disclosure (FY2026-Q1), Cadence Design Systems reported a Net Revenue Retention rate of 110% - a mid-pack result for B2B SaaS at this segment.
Cadence Design Systems is currently at or near its all-time NRR peak. The most recent quarter gained 4pp QoQ.
Within its peer set (dev tools companies at public stage in the $500k+ acv band), Cadence Design Systems's NRR is roughly in line with the cell median of 113%. Compare against the full peer cell aggregate for distribution and top performers.
Contract shape and forward-booked revenue.
Logo flow per period (count-side complement to dollar-based NRR).
Revenue, ARR, and team-size denominators for the productivity ratios.
Forward-booked revenue by maturity. Renewal pipeline visibility.
Support tiers: technical support · maintenance · education services
CS team segments: Strategic · Hyperscale · Aerospace and Defense · EV
CSM model: account-named
Education programs: Cadence Education Services
Top customer exec: Paul Scannell - Senior Vice President, Customer Success Team (since 2024) · reports to CEO
CCO comp tied to retention: Yes - Short-term cash incentive (SEBP) based on Revenue, Operating Margin, and Individual Performance Factor.
Computed from the data above. Shows where value comes from and where leakage hides.
Named CS initiatives across recent disclosures (newest first).
Acquired design and engineering business to expand System Design and Analysis portfolio.
"On February 23, 2026, Cadence acquired all of the outstanding equity of the design and engineering business of Hexagon"
Organizational rebranding ensuring a customer first focus and operational excellence across the Customer Success Team.
"Led an organizational rebranding ensuring a customer first focus and operational excellence across the CST."
Cloud-based and SaaS products for system design and analysis and functional verification.
"Customers can access our solutions via our Cadence OnCloud Platform."
Acquisition of Hexagon's design and engineering business to accelerate ISD strategy and expand System Design & Analysis portfolio.
"This acquisition is expected to accelerate Cadence’s Intelligent System Design™ strategy by expanding its System Design & Analysis portfolio"
Launched an orchestration framework for AI Super Agents enabling knowledge sharing from chips to systems.
"Launched AgentStack, an orchestration framework for Cadence's AI Super Agents that enables knowledge sharing"
Head agent framework for AI super agents enabling knowledge sharing across design flows.
"We introduced AgentStack, the head agent framework for our AI super agents"
New AI super agents for analog design and digital implementation.
"introduced two new breakthrough AI super agents, ViraStack for analog and custom design and InnoStack"
World's first agentic AI solution for automating chip design and verification, providing up to 10x productivity improvement.
"Last week, we launched ChipStack AI Super Agent, the world's first agentic AI solution for automating chip design"
Challenges acknowledged by management. Useful peer signals - your team is probably not alone.
Ongoing impact of trade control laws and export restrictions concerning advanced node IC production in China.
"trade control laws and regulations have been amended... including through the imposition of certain export control"
Broad macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility impacting the business landscape.
"Despite 2025 being a year of broad macroeconomic and geopolitical volatility"
Temporary license requirements for EDA software and technology in China reduced deliveries to customers.
"Cadence's revenue in China decreased primarily due to reduced deliveries of software offerings to the customers in China due to these license requirements."
Integration of Hexagon D&E is expected to be dilutive to margins and EPS in 2026.
"2026 P&L reflects the timing of integration... expect it to be dilutive to the tune of about $0.28"
Outlook assumes export control regulations remain substantially similar for the remainder of the year.
"contains our usual assumption that export control regulations that exist today remain substantially similar"
Impact of export restrictions on China outlined in BIS letter, later rescinded.
"Strength in other regions more than offset the impact of the export restrictions on China outlined in the BIS letter"
Curated quotes about customer outcomes, retention, renewals.
"we are becoming more central to our customers as a strategic and trusted partner."
"customers purchase Cadence agent licenses that orchestrate engineering workflows. Economics scale with adoption."
"Cadence is leading the agentic AI transformation in semiconductor design with a healthy environment."
"Cadence Cerebrus is rapidly becoming an essential part of the design flow as it continues to deliver transformative PPA benefits to customers."
"Customers are increasingly relying on our product as we execute our intelligent system design strategy."
"We haven't seen any shifts in customer behavior at this time as they continue investing in their next-generation designs."
Side-by-side NRR, customer cohorts, commercial structure, and CS motion.
Cadence Design Systems appears on 2 of our retention leaderboards.
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