Feb 26 (Reuters) - Synopsys ( SNPS ) on Wednesday

forecast second-quarter revenue above Wall Street estimates,

citing growing demand for its software used in designing chips.

The company's shares rose 2.45% to $482 in after-hours

trading after the results were released.

Companies such as Amazon ( AMZN ), Google and Apple ( AAPL ) are

investing in designing their own chips, as are carmakers and

other businesses, helping drive demand for Synopsys' ( SNPS ) software.

The company sees second-quarter revenue between $1.59

billion and $1.62 billion, the midpoint of which is slightly

above analysts' estimates of $1.60 billion, according to data

compiled by LSEG.

On an adjusted basis, the company sees per-share earnings to

be between $3.37 and $3.42 for the second quarter, compared with

analysts' estimates of $3.35.

Synopsys ( SNPS ), which partners with chip companies such as Nvidia ( NVDA )

, Qualcomm ( QCOM ) and Intel ( INTC ), provides

software and hardware used for designing advanced processors.

Synopsys ( SNPS ) Chief Executive Sassine Ghazi told Reuters that

while some sectors of the chip industry such as automotive chips

remain depressed, the company is still seeing strong demand from

customers designing AI chips.

Ghazi said that more companies have started to design

chips for inference, which is when trained AI models are put to

work, such as when chatbots provide answers.

"It's a good thing, because the more inference you have,

the more chips you're going to have, and the more types of chips

you're going to have, and we benefit from it," Ghazi said.

Synopsys ( SNPS ) is also closing its $35 billion deal to acquire

engineering software firm Ansys ( ANSS ), which was approved in

the EU last month. Ghazi said Synopsys ( SNPS ) has started to engage in

talks with Chinese regulators about the deal.

"We've had very active engagements with them in the last

few weeks, since the signals came officially from Europe and the

UK," Ghazi said. "The engagements at this point, I want to say

that they're very collaborative. They're no different than other

agencies in the type of engagements we've had with them, and we

still feel positive that we're marching towards a first half

(2025) close."

Revenue from the company's design automation unit - its

largest segment, which includes digital and custom integrated

circuit design software - was $1.02 billion in the first

quarter.

Synopsys ( SNPS ) posted revenue of $1.46 billion, slightly below

analysts' estimates of $1.47 billion for the first quarter.