Founded in Saskatoon, Solido grew from a bold AI idea into Siemens EDA, a global leader powering chip design for top tech firms.<\/p>\n
SASKATOON \u2014 Amit Gupta had an ambitious vision two decades ago of revolutionizing how electronic chips are designed and harnessing artificial intelligence as a powerful tool. That is how Solido Design Automation was born, an idea that started at the Innovation Saskatchewan Research and Technology Park office in Saskatoon.<\/p>\n
Gupta and a small team, along with local investors, pursued what many considered a bold idea ahead of its time; after all, AI was still in its early stages. After 20 years, Solido became Siemens EDA when the German-based multinational acquired it in 2017. EDA, or electronic design automation, is a portfolio of software and hardware services.<\/p>\n
Gupta told SaskToday that before being acquired by Siemens, Investment Saskatchewan was one of Solido’s\u00a0investors. The company\u2019s software is now used by some of the world\u2019s top chip manufacturers, and Solido became one of the fastest-growing technology companies in North America.<\/p>\n
Siemens operates in industrial automation, building automation, rail transportation and health technology. Solido, after being acquired in 2017, became part of Siemens\u2019 digital industry software division, which focuses on automating the design of electronic chips that power smartphones, computers and other devices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is proof that you don\u2019t need to be in California to lead globally in tech. We\u2019re not just growing a company; we\u2019re building a technology ecosystem here. We\u2019ve brought people to Saskatchewan rather than seeing them leave. That\u2019s a reversal of the usual trend \u2014 and a win for the province,\u201d said Gupta, now Siemens EDA\u2019s vice-president.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe built AI-powered software before AI was trendy. Our goal from the start was to make chip design faster, more efficient\u00a0and more cost-effective. There\u2019s a lot of fear around AI, but in our field, it\u2019s helping engineers be more productive and produce higher-quality work. It\u2019s not about replacing people \u2014 it\u2019s about empowering them to do more with the same resources.\u201d<\/p>\n
Most of the company\u2019s staff are graduates of the University of Saskatchewan with degrees in electrical engineering, computer science and related fields. Gupta said they could have pursued jobs in Silicon Valley or Toronto but stayed in Saskatchewan \u2014 a gain for the province. The company has also drawn talent from across Canada and around the world.<\/p>\n
The technology created by Gupta and his team leverages machine learning to optimize chip design \u2014 for everything from iPhones to electric vehicles. As chips grow more complex, Solido\u2019s AI fills a critical gap by enabling engineers to meet demanding performance standards in less time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re proud of what we\u2019ve built. But we\u2019re even more excited about what\u2019s ahead \u2014 growing Saskatchewan\u2019s role in global technology, developing talent, and keeping this province at the cutting edge of innovation for decades to come. The whole idea behind our AI is empowering the people who make the chips,\u201d said Gupta.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe engineers within these companies that are making the chips, with our AI-powered software, they\u2019re able to do much more. We developed software using AI to enhance those chips, making them better, faster and less expensive to manufacture. We focused on how we can use AI to automate the design of the chips that go into modern-day electronic devices.\u201d<\/p>\n
Solido continues to grow and innovate as part of Siemens\u2019 Digital Industries Software, with its Saskatoon office serving clients in the United States, Europe, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Korea, China and India. Its economic influence is entirely export-driven, with 100 per cent of revenues generated from global software sales.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Founded in Saskatoon, Solido grew from a bold AI idea into Siemens EDA, a global leader powering chip…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":109060,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,61844,61],"class_list":["post-109059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-saskatoontechnologychipsaisiemenssalidoamit-gupta","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}