San Jose tech firm pleads guilty to supplying Chinese military supercomputer program

A Silicon Valley semiconductor software firm has agreed to plead guilty and pay more than $140 million in penalties in connection with charges that it illegally exported sensitive American technology to a Chinese military university blacklisted by the U.S., federal prosecutors said.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California and the U.S. Department of Justice’s National Security Division alleged Cadence Design Systems Inc. sold semiconductor design software and tools to the National University of Defense Technology through a Chinese front company, despite knowing the university had been restricted due to its links to China’s military and nuclear simulation programs.