2026 Outlook with Kamal Khan of Perforce

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your company.

Kamal Khan, Vice President North America Automotive/Semiconductor at Perforce. Perforce is trusted by the world’s leading brands to drive quality, security, compliance, collaboration, and speed across the technology lifecycle. Our global footprint spans more than 80 countries and includes over 75% of the Fortune 100. Perforce’s integrated semiconductor solutions—Perforce P4 and IPLM—provide an integrated, highly scalable solution for IP and design data management.

What was the most exciting high point of 2025 for your company?

In May 2025, we announced our partnership with Siemens Digital Industries Software to transform how smart, connected products are designed and developed. This was certainly a high point of the year, generating strong interest from industry media and customers alike. Together with Siemens, we’re delivering a unified development platform that brings real-time decision-making, end-to-end traceability, and AI-driven insight across the product development lifecycle.

What was the biggest challenge your company faced in 2025?

Honestly, the biggest challenge we faced in 2025 was keeping up with the rapid pace of change in semiconductor design. The industry is moving fast—AI chips, automotive systems, IoT devices—all requiring massive amounts of reusable IP and tighter compliance. Managing thousands of IP blocks while maintaining quality and compliance—without slowing down innovation—is tough. We have to make sure our solutions, like IPLM and P4, not only centralize IP management but also incorporate greater automation and intelligence to help teams move faster with confidence. That balance between speed and reliability was the hardest part, but it pushed us to innovate in ways that really matter to our customers.

How is your company’s work addressing this challenge?

We’re tackling these challenges head-on by doubling down on integration and automation through our partnership with Siemens. Semiconductor teams need seamless workflows, and that means connecting IP and data management with the design and verification tools they already rely on. By integrating IPLM and P4 with Siemens EDA solutions, we’re creating a unified environment where engineers can manage IP, track dependencies, and run compliance checks without jumping between systems. We’re also introducing AI-driven capabilities to reduce manual effort and catch issues earlier. This partnership isn’t just about technology; it’s about giving design teams confidence that they can innovate faster without sacrificing quality or compliance.

What do you think the biggest growth area for 2026 will be, and why?

In 2026, the biggest growth opportunity for Perforce in the semiconductor industry will come from helping teams work smarter, not harder. Chip design is getting more complex as companies race to build AI-driven processors for everything from cars to smart devices. That complexity means more IP to manage, more dependencies, more compliance checks, and more chances for costly mistakes.

How is your company’s work addressing this growth?

IPLM can address this growing complexity by giving teams a single source of truth for IP, automating the release process and BOM management, and using AI to predict dependencies and flag risks early. Combined with P4’s trusted, scalable version control, this approach helps engineers focus on innovation instead of chasing files or fixing errors—speeding up development and reducing respins.

What conferences did you attend in 2025 and how was the traffic?

Our team attended and exhibited at Embedded World and DAC in 2025. Booth traffic was strong at both conferences, particularly at DAC, as we announced our partnership with Siemens at the event and there was a lot of excitement around that. We also attended the Chiplet Summit, Siemens’ User2User conference, and the GSA Executive Forum in Silicon Valley.

Will you participate in conferences in 2025? Same or more as 2025?

We will be attending the same conferences in 2026, and possibly a few more.

How do customers normally engage with your company?

Our customer engagements with the largest semiconductor companies typically start with a technical evaluation, followed by a POC, before moving to production. We maintain a high cadence of communication with customers to ensure close collaboration and the highest level of support throughout the evaluation, POC, and beyond.

We welcome all semiconductor leaders to join our IPLM Monthly User Group (MUG) sessions. It’s a great opportunity to hear from product experts, industry peers, and IPLM users about topics like IP governance, quality, and security, as well as IPLM best practices and the latest product features. To register, visit https://www.perforce.com/products/helix-iplm/user-group.

Also Read:

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5 Lessons the Semiconductor Industry Can Learn from Gaming

Why IP Quality and Governance Are Essential in Modern Chip Design