Fortune - USA (2020-12)

Ansys

41 U.S. (ANSS, $318)

When engineers,

designers, and re-

searchers at some of

the top industrial

companies seek to

innovate, they turn to

Ansys. The software

company, with a re-

cent market value of

$27 billion, helps us-

ers create digital sim-

ulations of their

soon-to-be products.

Ansys is a dominant

player in the space,

owning 4 0 % of mar-

ket share and gener-

ating $1.5 billion in

revenue in 2 0 19. The

stock has doubled

over the past three

years.

Autodesk

30 U.S. (ADSK, $255)

C omputer-assisted

design and manufac-

turing software (a.k.a.

CAD and CAM) is in-

valuable in fields like

construction and ar-

chitecture, and pricey

as a result. Autodesk

has boosted its lead-

ership in the field by

putting CAD and

CAM in the cloud,

making them more

affordable, while still

growing sales at 15%

to 20 % annually. Re-

cent forays into A.I.-

powered construc-

tion-analytics tools

have further strength-

ened Autodesk’s

position.

Adobe

29 U.S. (ADBE, $463)

The software giant continues to evolve. In its most recent quarter, Ado-

be’s digital media segment, its largest, grew by 19% year over year. The

company’s subscription-based suite of tools for designing and publishing

content and its software for document creation and electronic signatures

(yes, PDFs are still big business) were largely responsible. And Adobe’s di-

verse mix of customers is also helping to future-proof its business. Sales

of the company’s Advertising Cloud products have flattened lately, owing

to increased competition from large players and a “significant global de-

cline in advertising spending.” But the stock is up 150% over three years.

Dassault

Systèmes

35 FRANCE (PA: DSY,

$188)

Dassault Systèmes

is known for its 3D

visualization soft-

ware, used by de-

signers and engi-

neers across a swath

of industries. Its

20 19 acquisition of

Medidata Solutions

made Dassault a

player in clinical trial

software just before

the onset of the pan-

demic. Now the

company is at the

forefront of a wave

of digitization across

industrial systems

and health care alike.

SCREEN TIME

Adobe’s chief product oicer, Scott Belsky, at the Adobe MAX event in 2019.

D ESIGN TECH

FORTUNE DECEMBER 2020 /JANUARY 2021 123

NVIDIA: DAVID PAUL MORRIS—BLOOMBERG VIA GETTY IMAGES; ADOBE: COURTESY OF ADOBE