The US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) imposed a $95 million administrative penalty on Cadence Design Systems Inc. for illegally exporting electronic design automation hardware and software, as well as semiconductor design technology. Separately, Cadence agreed to $45 million in forfeitures under an agreement with the US Department of Justice.
In its settlement with BIS, Cadence admitted that employees of its Chinese subsidiary knowingly transferred sensitive US technology to entities developing supercomputers in support of China’s military modernization and nuclear weapons programs. They included the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT), Tianjin Phytium Information Technology (Phytium), and other parties on the Entity List.
Cadence admitted to 56 violations of the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) between September 2015 and September 2020. It sold electronic design automation products to NUDT through Central South CAD Center (CSCC), an alias. The equipment, software and technology exported to CSCC were valued at $45,305,317.41.
