Academia x Industry: The Role of Fundamentals for Silicon in an AI Native Era

Abstract: Agentic AI is set to become one of the most transformational technologies in generations and materially change how we approach silicon design and engineering. The impact is being felt in real time amid a rapidly changing landscape, which can make it overwhelming for both silicon practitioners and academics to adapt to the AI native silicon design era. To add structure to how we navigate this transition, we provide a joint view from academia and industry silicon practitioners of the challenges, opportunities, and considerations we expect will catalyze how the community transitions into an AI native silicon future. In particular, we reemphasize the importance of core silicon design fundamentals in academic training and why they have renewed importance in research and industry practice for AI native silicon design. It is our hope that the views provided here will offer valuable and complementary perspectives to those in academia and industry to interpret, inform, and catalyze the transition to the AI native era. We expect that many similar and overlapping views will emerge, but the precise technical details will differ across stakeholders, so it is valuable for the community to amass a diversity of viewpoints.