NXP Semiconductors

NXP Semiconductors N.V. is a Dutch semiconductor manufacturing and design company with headquarters in Eindhoven, Netherlands.[2] It is the third largest European semiconductor company by market capitalization as of 2024.[3] The company employs approximately 34,000 people in more than 30 countries and it reported revenues of $12.61 billion in 2024.[4] The company's origins date back to the 1950s as part of Philips and it became one of the world's largest semiconductor companies by the end of the 20th century. Philips spun off the company in 2006 and it has since operated independently.

The company's name is an abbreviation of Next eXPerience.

Overview

Originally spun off from Philips in 2006, NXP completed its initial public offering, on August 6, 2010, with shares trading on

History

Within Philips

In 1953 Philips started a small scale production facility in the center of the Dutch city Nijmegen as part of its main industry group "Icoma" (Industrial Components and Materials), followed by the opening of a new factory in 1955. In 1965 Icoma became part of a new Philips main industry group "Elcoma" (Electronic Components and Materials).[11]

In 1975 Silicon Valley–based Signetics was acquired by Philips. Signetics claimed to be the "first company in the world established expressly to make and sell integrated circuits"[12] and inventor of the 555 timer IC. At the time, it was claimed that with the Signetics acquisition, Philips was now number two in the league table of semiconductor manufacturers in the world.[13]

In 1987, Philips was ranked Europe's largest semiconductor maker.[14] The year after, all Philips semiconductor subsidiaries, including Signetics, Faselec (in Switzerland) and Mullard (in the UK), were merged in the newly formed product division Components. The semiconductor activities were split off from Components in 1991 under the name Philips Semiconductors.[11]

In June 1999, Philips acquired VLSI Technology, at the time making Philips the world's sixth largest semiconductor company.[15]

Independent company

2000s

In December 2005, Philips announced its intention to divest Philips Semiconductors into an independent legal entity.[16] In September 2006, Philips completed the sale of an 80.1% stake in Philips Semiconductors to a consortium of private equity investors consisting of KKR, Bain Capital, Silver Lake Partners, Apax Partners and AlpInvest Partners.[17][18] The new company name NXP (from Next eXPerience) was announced on August 31, 2006,[19] and the company was officially launched during the Internationale Funkausstellung

2000s

2010s and 2020s

Before the divestiture of Nexperia in June 2016,[27] NXP was a volume supplier of discrete and standard logic devices, celebrating its 50 years in logic (via its history as both Signetics and Philips Semiconductors) in March 2012.[28]

NXP's first CEO was Frans van Houten; he was succeeded by Richard L. Clemmer on January 1, 2009.[29] From May 2020 until 2025, Kurt Sievers served as president and CEO.[30][31][32]

Notable events

On July 26, 2010, NXP announced that it had acquired Jennic, based in Sheffield, UK,[46] which now operates as part of its smart home and energy product line, using Zigbee and JenNet-IP.

On August 6, 2010, NXP announced its initial public offering at Nasdaq, with 34 million shares, pricing each $14.[47]

In December 2010, NXP announced that it would sell its Sound Solutions business to Knowles Electronics, part of Dover Corporation, for $855 million in cash.[48] The acquisition was completed as of July 5, 2011.[49]

In April 2012, NXP announced its intent to acquire electronic design consultancy Catena to work on automotive applications.[50]

In July 2012, NXP sold its high-speed data converter assets to Integrated Device Technology.[51]

In 2012, revenue for NXP's Identification business unit was $986 million, up 41% from 2011, in part due to growing sales of NFC chips and secure elements.[52]

On January 4, 2013, NXP and Cisco announced their investment in Cohda Wireless, an Australian company focused on car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure communications.[53]

In January 2013, NXP announced 700-900 redundancies worldwide in an effort to cut costs related to "support services".[54]

In May 2013, NXP announced that it acquired Code Red Technologies, a provider of embedded software development such as the LPCXpresso IDE and Red Suite.[55]

In July 2014, NXP was reported to have terminated the employment of union organizers.[56] A campaign was started for their reinstatement.[57]

In August 2015, a joint-venture with the Beijing JianGuang Asset Management Co. Ltd. was registered in Shanghai, China under the name WeEn Semiconductors.[58]

On June 14, 2016, it was announced that Nexperia would be divested from NXP to a consortium of financial investors consisting of Beijing Jianguang Asset Management Co., Ltd (“JAC Capital”) and Wise Road Capital LTD (“Wise Road Capital”).[59] WeEn Semiconductors started delivery of bipolar and SiC power semiconductors, TRIACs, IGBT modules, etc.[60]

In April 2017, Qualcomm received approval from U.S. antitrust regulators for the acquisition of NXP for $47 billion.[61] However, the acquisition has not received approval from Chinese authorities and Qualcomm has refiled an antitrust application and request to purchase with the PRC Ministry of Commerce.[62]

The i.MX 8 was announced Q1 2017, based around 3 products. Two variants include four Cortex-A53. All versions includes one or two Cortex-A72 CPU cores and all versions includes two Cortex-M4F CPU cores.[63]

The i.MX 8M series were announced on January 4 at CES 2017.[64]

In September 2018, NXP announced that it acquired OmniPHY, a provider of automotive Ethernet subsystem technology.[65][66]

On December 6, 2019, NXP announced the completion of the acquisition of the wireless connectivity assets from Marvell.[67]

On June 18, 2020, NXP announced HoverGames Challenge 2: Help Drones Help Others.[68]

On July 21, 2020, NXP delivered secure and scalable edge-connected platforms based on its i.MX RT crossover processors and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth solutions.[69]

On January 5, 2023, NXP introduced industry-first 28 nm RFCMOS radar one-chip for safety-critical ADAS applications, with DENSO leveraging it to build advanced ADAS platforms.[70]

NXP and Foxconn opened a joint laboratory in December 2023 in the Foxconn Nankan Facility in Taiwan, marking a new milestone in the companies’ strategic collaboration for software-defined electric vehicle development.[71]

Controversies

In March 2013, NXP locked out workers at its plant in Bangkok, Thailand. The reason was stalled negotiations over a new work schedule with their trade union, which was affiliated with the Confederation of Thai Electrical Appliances, Electronic Automobile & Metalworkers (TEAM). Management then called in small groups of workers, asked them if they agreed with the union's demands, and told them to leave if they did. They were not able to enter the factory the next day. In response, TEAM staged protests outside the factory and on March 13 outside the Dutch embassy and also filed a complaint with the National Human Right Commission. On April 29, mediation by the Ministry of Labour led to the signing of a memorandum that passed the decision over the work schedule to the Labour Relations Committee. The committee decided on June 20 that the new work schedule did not violate Thai labour law; however, the National Human Rights Committee decided otherwise and recommended the factory should revert to the old schedule. NXP continues to demand regular 12-hour shifts.[72]

In May 2014, the company fired 24 workers at its plant in the special economic zone in Cabuyao, The Philippines. The workers were all officials of a trade union affiliated with the Metal Workers Alliance of the Philippines (MWAP). Reports said they were fired due to their union functions in negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement. Factory owners claimed the workers were fired after refusing to work on April 9, while workers said they had not been paid for two months.[73] IndustriALL and its affiliated unions in the Philippines condemned the dismissals.[74][75] In September, MWAP and NXP reached an agreement by which 12 of the fired workers were reinstated and the other 12 received separation packages. NXP also committed itself to a long-term wage increase.[76] In the summer of 2015, a member of the Dutch parliament questioned trade minister Lilianne Ploumen regarding NXP's behaviour.[77]

type	Public
traded as	nasdaq: NXPI Nasdaq-100 component S&P 500 component
foundation	2006, as a spin-off of Philips
location	High Tech Campus, Eindhoven, Netherlands
key people	Julie Southern (chair) Rafael Sotomayor (president and CEO)
products	Integrated circuits
industry	Semiconductors
num employees	32,169 (2025)
revenue	US$12.3 billion (2025)
operating income	US$3.05 billion (2025)
net income	US$2.02 billion (2025)
assets	US$26.6 billion (2025)
equity	US$10.1 billion (2025)
website	nxp.com
footnotes	‡R1R‡

Overview

History

Within Philips

Independent company

2000s

2000s

2010s and 2020s

Worldwide sites

Wafer fabs

R&D and design

Test and assembly

Sales

Joint ventures

Notable events

Controversies

See also

External links

References

2010s and 2020s