Design Automation Conference

What Design Automation Conference does

The Design Automation Conference (DAC) is the longest-running conference focused on research and technology for the design and design automation of electronic chips to systems, founded in 1964 and currently operating in its 63rd edition. DAC is a nonprofit academic conference jointly sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), with supporting roles from ACM's Special Interest Group on Design Automation (SIGDA) and IEEE's Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA). The annual event attracts designers, researchers, tool developers, and vendors from more than 55 countries, with the 63rd DAC scheduled for July 26-29, 2026 in Long Beach, California, featuring over 550 technical sessions across five days and 120+ exhibitors including 15 first-time AI-focused design companies.

DAC's core product is the annual conference itself, complemented by an expanding portfolio of programmatic offerings including Hack@DAC (hardware security competition), the ICLAD Hackathon (generative AI chip design), Ph.D. Forum, DAC Young Fellows student program, University Demonstration, DAC Under-40 Innovators Awards, Women in Technology @ DAC, Most Influential Papers Award, and Poster Gladiator Contest. The conference operates the DAC-CAST podcast on Spotify and DACtv YouTube channel for year-round content distribution, and has launched DAC Explorer, an AI-powered natural language tool for session recommendation. Underlying technology is primarily event management infrastructure with the AI Explorer as the only proprietary AI application developed by DAC itself.

DAC generates revenue through attendee registration fees (with full conference registration valued at $1,599), exhibition booth fees, and tiered sponsorships at Platinum, Gold, Silver, and Bronze levels. Platinum sponsors for 2026 include Siemens EDA, Bronco AI, ChipAgents, and Normal Computing; Silver sponsors include Cadence, Synopsys, Keysight, Ricursive, Agentrys, and Architect Labs. The customer base spans EDA professionals, graduate students and early-career researchers, and EDA/semiconductor companies. Website management is contracted to Conference Catalysts, LLC. As a nonprofit, DAC does not disclose financials and operates without venture capital backing or public ownership.

Name

Design Automation Conference

Legal name

Design Automation Conference

Website

https://dac.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1964

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

The Design Automation Conference (DAC) is a nonprofit academic conference jointly sponsored by ACM and IEEE, founded in 1964 as the premier annual event for electronic design automation, chip design, and systems design. It serves EDA researchers, tool developers, semiconductor companies, and students across 55+ countries through 550+ technical sessions and 120+ exhibitors.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Professional Conference Services

NAICS

Convention and Trade Show Organizers (561920)

akta.pro primary industry

EDA Cloud/SaaS, Design Data Management & Collaboration (HDAHAFAJ)

akta.pro secondary industry

Virtual/Hybrid Conference Production & Platform Management (THAHACAM)

Keywords

• Electronic design automation conference
• Semiconductor design conference
• EDA industry exhibition
• Chip design technical program
• Professional engineering event

Headquarters

HQ city

Louisville

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Others

Revenue model

1. Conference Registration Fees: Revenue is generated through attendee registration fees for the annual conference, with varying fee structures for different attendee categories including students (Young Fellows program with free registration), researchers, industry professionals, and exhibitors.
2. Exhibition and Sponsorship Revenue: The conference generates revenue through exhibition booth fees, sponsorship opportunities at various levels (Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze), and industry partnership programs.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Design Automation Conference (DAC) is an annual professional conference delivering a multi-day technical program (550+ sessions) on electronic design automation, chip design, and systems design, paired with an industry exhibition hosting 120+ vendors and sponsors. The conference monetizes through attendee registration fees, tiered corporate sponsorships, and exhibition booth sales, while operating specialized programs including Hack@DAC, ICLAD Hackathon, Ph.D. Forum, DAC Young Fellows, and University Demonstration.

Product overview

The Design Automation Conference (DAC) is the premier global event for chips to systems, organized as an annual conference with multiple integrated programs. DAC 2026 features the main conference with over 550 technical sessions across five days, complemented by specialized programs including Hack@DAC (hardware security competition), the ICLAD Hackathon (generative AI chip design), the Ph.D. Forum for academic research, and the DAC Young Fellows student program. Supporting offerings include the University Demonstration showcase, DAC Under-40 Awards, Women in Technology @ DAC mentorship community, Most Influential Papers Award, and the Poster Gladiator Contest. The conference also provides digital resources including DAC-CAST podcast and DACtv YouTube channel. DAC Explorer is an AI-powered navigation tool that helps attendees plan their schedule. Notably, DAC features product launches from exhibitors, including the Fuse EDA AI System and Fuse Agent from Siemens EDA for autonomous EDA workflows. DAC is sponsored by ACM and IEEE and supported by ACM SIGDA and IEEE CEDA.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• DAC-CAST: Conference podcast featuring interviews and discussions on chip design and EDA topics
• DACtv
• DAC Young Fellows
• Ph.D. Forum

Products and services

• DAC Annual Conference The premier chips-to-systems conference for the EDA ecosystem, featuring over 550 technical sessions across AI, Design, EDA, Security, and Systems tracks, an exhibition with 120+ vendors, keynotes, tutorials, and networking. Targeted at designers, researchers, tool developers, and vendors from academia and industry.
• DAC Explorer AI-powered conference navigation tool that helps attendees discover and plan their schedule by matching user-stated preferences to relevant sessions across the DAC program.
• Hack@DAC The world's largest hardware security competition held at DAC, where participants work on security challenges in chip and system design.
• ICLAD Hackathon Generative AI chip design hackathon co-located with DAC, focused on applying generative AI techniques to semiconductor design challenges.
• Ph.D. Forum Premier poster forum for Ph.D. research in design automation, hosted by ACM SIGDA and IEEE CEDA, featuring competitive presentations with approximately 30% acceptance rate.
• DAC Young Fellows Program providing early-stage EDA students free full conference registration (valued at $1,599), travel grants up to $1,200, and access to summer school, career coaching, and networking with industry leaders.
• University Demonstration at DAC 36th annual showcase where university researchers demonstrate EDA tools, design projects, and instructional materials to the DAC community.
• Poster Gladiator Contest Daily poster competition at the DAC Pavilion where Engineering Track finalists defend their technical work in rapid-fire presentations before expert judges.
• DAC-CAST Podcast Monthly podcast featuring interviews and discussions with leaders in chip design, EDA, and the semiconductor industry, available on Spotify.
• DACtv YouTube channel hosting past DAC keynotes, talks, and conference content for on-demand viewing.

Quantifiable outcome

• AI comprises 40% of the technical program with 26%+ growth in submissions

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability5 records

Partnerships

17 partnerships are on record, tiered silver sponsor, platinum sponsor, gold sponsor, bronze sponsor, conference sponsor and technical conference sponsor.

• Synopsyssilver sponsorGTM or Marketing PartnerSynopsys is a Silver sponsor of DAC 2026. It is an American multinational electronic design automation company headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, focusing on design and verification of silicon chips, electronic system-level design and verification, and reusable components.
• Cadencesilver sponsorGTM or Marketing PartnerCadence is a Silver sponsor of DAC 2026. It delivers tools, software, IP, and high-end services that help companies design and verify chips, packages, boards, and entire systems.
• Keysightsilver sponsorGTM or Marketing PartnerKeysight is a Silver sponsor of DAC 2026.
• Ricursivesilver sponsorGTM or Marketing PartnerRicursive is a Silver sponsor of DAC 2026. It is a frontier AI lab focused on building self-improving systems for chip design, backed by $335M from Sequoia, Lightspeed, DST, and NVentures.
• Siemensplatinum sponsorGTM or Marketing PartnerSiemens is a Platinum sponsor of DAC 2026. It is a technology company transforming industry, infrastructure and transportation with expertise in electrification, automation, software, and digital twin.
• Bronco AIplatinum sponsorGTM or Marketing PartnerBronco AI is a Platinum sponsor of DAC 2026. It is an AI company focused on bringing AI to semiconductors.
• ChipAgentsplatinum sponsorGTM or Marketing PartnerChipAgents is a Platinum sponsor of DAC 2026. It is reinventing semiconductor design and verification through advanced AI agent techniques with its flagship product aiming to boost RTL design and verification productivity by 10x.
• Normal Computingplatinum sponsorGTM or Marketing PartnerNormal Computing is a Platinum sponsor of DAC 2026. It builds purpose-built AI for silicon engineering and has raised more than $85M in funding led by Samsung Catalyst Fund.
• Voltaigold sponsorGTM or Marketing PartnerVoltai is a Gold sponsor of DAC 2026.
• Agentryssilver sponsorGTM or Marketing PartnerAgentrys is a Silver sponsor of DAC 2026. It is an applied research team building the future of chip design through Agentic Design Automation (ADA).
• Architect Labssilver sponsorGTM or Marketing PartnerArchitect Labs is a Silver sponsor of DAC 2026.
• VerifAIXbronze sponsorGTM or Marketing PartnerVerifAIX is a Bronze sponsor of DAC 2026.
• Amazon Leobronze sponsorGTM or Marketing PartnerAmazon Leo is a Bronze sponsor of DAC 2026.
• ACM SIGDAconference sponsorStrategic or Co-development PartnerACM's Special Interest Group on Design Automation (SIGDA) is a supporting organization of DAC. DAC is sponsored by ACM and IEEE and supported by ACM SIGDA.
• IEEEconference sponsorStrategic or Co-development PartnerIEEE is a sponsoring organization of DAC along with ACM.
• IEEE CEDAconference sponsorStrategic or Co-development PartnerIEEE's Council on Electronic Design Automation (CEDA) is a supporting organization of DAC.
• IEEE Solid-State Circuits Societytechnical conference sponsorStrategic or Co-development PartnerIEEE Solid-State Circuits Society is a technical conference sponsor of DAC.

Scale indicators7 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Market position

Competitive moat5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/52nddac
• YouTubeyoutube.com/channel/UCIS3weT0CfLh7Bj8NmhYvxg
• Facebookfacebook.com/dacthechipstosystemsconference
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/groupInvitation

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Design Automation Conference