STMicroelectronics

STMicroelectronics NV (commonly referred to as ST or STMicro) is a European multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It is the largest of such companies in Europe. The company is incorporated in the Netherlands and headquartered in Plan-les-Ouates, Switzerland. It manufactures a wide range of microelectronics, including the widely-used STM8 and STM32 microcontrollers. ST was founded in 1987 from the merger of two state-owned semiconductor corporations, SGS Microelettronica of Italy and Thomson Semiconducteurs of France, with the aim of creating a corporation that could compete effectively with international semiconductor manufacturers. From early on, the company's senior management sought out poorly-served niches in the global market, such as microcontrollers, application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and analogue chips, and pursued vertical integration of its manufacturing. Another key strategy of ST was its focus on strategic partnerships, such as with Nokia and Seagate Technology; it would form 31 separate strategic alliances within its first 14 years of operation. In 1994, ST was floated on the Paris and New York stock exchanges, as well as being listed on the Italian Bourse four years later, at which point Thomson SA sold its stake in the ST. To further consolidate and expand its position in the semiconductor industry, numerous acquisitions were completed during the 1990s, helping ST to become the third largest chipmaker (in terms of sales) during 2001. The company's growth slowed somewhat during the 2000s; several major partnerships were formed during this decade, including the memory-oriented joint venture Numonyx between Intel and ST, the Crolles 2 Alliance between Motorola, TSMC, Philips, and the ST Ericsson joint venture that joined ST-NXP Wireless with Ericsson Mobile Platforms. In the 2010s, ST became a key supplier for SpaceX's Starlink satellite communications network. In 2023, ST partnered with Synopsys to design a working chip on Microsoft's cloud platform,...