Anirudh Devgan paces backstage at a Las Vegas conference, tweed blazer sharp. Cadence Design Systems’ president and CEO has just wrapped an onstage chat. Now, he turns to the U.S. government’s balance sheet. It’s busted. Like a tech firm ignoring red flags until bankruptcy hits.
“I think debt is a big problem because all these other countries, like I just came back from China, they don’t have that problem,” Devgan told Fortune. “The balance sheet has to be strong, just like a company balance sheet. The country’s balance sheet has to be strong.”
America’s gross national debt topped $39 trillion recently. That’s up from $20 trillion a decade ago. Net interest payments? Headed over $1 trillion in fiscal 2026. Devgan sees parallels to companies he watched fail. Overconfidence. Short-term thinking. No fix for the books.
Cadence thrives amid AI frenzy. Its electronic design automation software powers chips in iPhones, data centers. Market cap exceeds $90 billion. Fiscal 2025 brought more than 14% revenue growth, near 45% non-GAAP operating margins. Devgan allocates 20% of revenue to future tech bets. Think $3 billion buy of Hexagon’s design unit. “The best time to do this is when you’re doing really well, because the typical mistake is when you’re doing really well, you will just try to milk what you have,” he said.
But governments don’t balance sheets like CEOs. Federal R&D spending sits at 0.63% of GDP in 2024, per National Science Foundation data cited in the Fortune piece. Direct investment? Around 0.2%. “It’s defense and social programs. The R&D spend is like half a percent,” Devgan notes. “The problem with the debt is that you are not investing for the future… We’re not investing 20%—we’re investing 0.5%.”
America’s Tech Edge Slips on Debt’s Weight
U.S. dominance came from R&D muscle. Post-World War II, investments fueled semiconductors, internet. Now debt crowds it out. Interest eats budgets. China ramps factories, fabs. Devgan, fresh from there, spots the gap. Nations with clean sheets invest boldly. America pays yesterday’s bills.
Semiconductors boom anyway. Global sales hit $793 billion in 2025, per Semiconductor Industry Association. Projections eyed $1 trillion by 2030. Reality? $1.2 trillion this year, thanks to AI. Cadence rides it. But national fiscal drag looms. “If I was CEO for the country, you have to fix your balance sheet,” Devgan insists.
Debt hit $39 trillion in March, per Treasury data tracked by groups like the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. That’s $289,000 per household. Or $114,000 per person. Gross debt: $39 trillion. Publicly held: over $31 trillion, says Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Deficits near $2 trillion yearly. Twice the 3% GDP target economists favor.
Owners? Domestic investors hold most. Intragovernmental funds 13%, per Visual Capitalist. Foreign buyers, Fed, mutual funds fill the rest. Interest burden: $900 billion annually now, per Forbes.
Devgan shrugs off AI power worries. Data centers strain grids? Software fixes deliver 10x gains. “It always happens in software… One software change can give you 10x improvement.” Waymo’s self-driving tech? Real breakthrough. Transforms $3-4 trillion transport sector. Parking lots—25% of L.A. downtown—go green.
Human Nature, Debt Traps, Future Bets
History repeats. Smart folks repeat dumb moves. Mainframes to internet. Now AI hype. “There is some AI washing going on,” Devgan says. Layoffs blamed on bots? Often not. Tech evolves faster than people. “The technology always evolves faster.”
Cadence reports long-term debt around $2.48 billion, per its Q4 2025 earnings. Manageable. Cash: $3 billion. It repurchased $925 million in shares. Devgan pushes transparency on AI shifts. Leaders hype. Workers doubt. “We need to bring everybody along… in a truthful manner.”
Broader warnings echo. Debt doubled near Trump’s vow to erase it, notes Fortune in March. House Budget Chairman Jodey Arrington called for a constitutional convention, per committee release. Pace: First $1 trillion took 200 years. Now trillions every few months.
Devgan’s fix? Act like a CEO. Cut waste. Boost R&D. China doesn’t carry this anchor. America can’t compete hobbled. Debt isn’t abstract. It starves innovation. Kills edges in chips, AI, robotics. Cadence proves the model: Profit now. Bet big ahead. Nationally? Overdue.
Short-termism kills companies. Nations too.
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