Renesas Acquires Pictorus to Simplify and Accelerate Embedded Application Software Development

This Strategic Move Brings Renesas Another Step Closer to Realizing Its Digitalization Vision

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE:6723, “Renesas”), a premier supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions, announced today that a Renesas subsidiary has completed the acquisition of software developer Pictorus, based in Oakland, California.

With the acquisition of Pictorus, Renesas gains a cloud-based behavioral modeling platform that accelerates embedded system development, moving the engineering experience beyond point tools by providing a connected platform for model-based system design. This acquisition will enhance the value of Renesas 365, Renesas’ newly released platform that unifies electronics system development from discovery to development and lifecycle management. It will enable engineers to visually design, express, and simulate system behavior and intent, accelerating the application development cycle. As a cloud native platform, it will help to ensure a complete digital thread, enabling digital continuity from system modeling to software implementation to device deployment. It brings Renesas another step closer to realizing its Digitalization Vision: To make electronics design accessible to the broader market to allow more innovation by creating an Electronics System Design & Lifecycle Management Platform together with Altium.

Across the automotive, robotics, and industrial equipment sectors, software-defined solutions are advancing rapidly, making early-stage system validation and speed of development key competitive advantages. This makes the timing of the acquisition exceptionally advantageous. Incorporating Pictorus into Renesas 365 makes development faster and more accessible through advanced systems engineering that supports optimization for design constraints and system behavior. Engineers will be able to design system behavior visually by drawing block diagrams in a web browser to describe how a device should behave. Writing code will no longer be necessary as Pictorus automatically converts the diagrams into real, executable embedded software, generated in robust, memory-safe Rust, with C/C++ and Python interoperability. These capabilities make development faster and more efficient, accelerating time to market.

“Incorporating Pictorus’ capabilities advances system design on Renesas 365 by combining current architectural modeling capabilities with behavioral modeling and simulation,” said Leigh Gawne, Renesas’ Vice President of R&D and Digital Industries, Software & Digitalization. “In addition, Pictorus’ technology will drive a further left shift through rapid virtual prototyping and code generation, accelerating exploration and evaluation, enabling faster, more optimal device selections,” he added.

Founded by engineers with decades of experience developing vehicle software for demanding environments, Pictorus grew out of a common frustration: too many fragmented tools and workflows are needed to build production-grade embedded systems. Pictorus makes it easier to design, debug, and deploy reliable embedded software through rapid iteration, memory-safe code generation, and model-based design.

Chris Sullivan, Founder and CEO of Pictorus, said, “We started Pictorus because embedded firmware development still asks engineers to bridge too many gaps between hardware, software, simulation, and deployment. Engineers deserve something more modern and cohesive. What excites us most about joining Renesas is how strongly that vision aligns with the direction of the Renesas 365 platform. Renesas is uniquely positioned to connect hardware, software, and development workflows at a massive scale, and we’re excited to help build that future together.”

About Renesas Electronics Corporation

Renesas Electronics Corporation (TSE: 6723) empowers a safer, smarter and more sustainable future where technology helps make our lives easier. A leading global provider of microcontrollers, Renesas combines our expertise in embedded processing, analog, power and connectivity to deliver complete semiconductor solutions. These Winning Combinations accelerate time to market for automotive, industrial, infrastructure and IoT applications, enabling billions of connected, intelligent devices that enhance the way people work and live. Learn more at renesas.com. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, X, YouTube and Instagram.

Forward-Looking Statements

The statements in this press release with respect to the plans, strategies and financial outlook of Renesas and its consolidated subsidiaries (collectively “we”) are forward-looking statements involving risks and uncertainties. Such forward-looking statements do not represent any guarantee by management of future performance. In many cases, but not all, we use such words as “aim,” “anticipate,” “believe,” “continue,” “endeavor,” “estimate,” “expect,” “initiative,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “potential,” “probability,” “project,” “risk,” “seek,” “should,” “strive,” “target,” “will” and similar expressions to identify forward-looking statements. You can also identify forward-looking statements by discussions of strategy, plans or intentions. These statements discuss future expectations, identify strategies, contain projections of our results of operations or financial condition, or state other forward-looking information based on our current expectations, assumptions, estimates and projections about our business and industry, our future business strategies and the environment in which we will operate in the future. Known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from those contained or implied in any forward-looking statement, including, but not limited to, general economic conditions in our markets, which are primarily Japan, North America, Asia, and Europe; demand for, and competitive pricing pressure on, products and services in the marketplace; ability to continue to win acceptance of products and services in these highly competitive markets; and fluctuations in currency exchange rates, particularly between the yen and the U.S. dollar. Among other factors, downturn of the world economy; deteriorating financial conditions in world markets, or deterioration in domestic and overseas stock markets, may cause actual results to differ from the projected results forecast.

This press release is based on the economic, regulatory, market and other conditions as in effect on the date hereof. It should be understood that subsequent developments may affect the information contained in this presentation, which neither we nor our advisors or representatives are under an obligation to update, revise or affirm.

(Remarks) All names of products or services mentioned in this press release are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.