STMicroelectronics

Background ST was formed in 1987 by the merger of two government-owned semiconductor companies: Italian SGS Microelettronica (where SGS stands for Società Generale Semiconduttori, "General Semiconductor Company"), and French Thomson Semiconducteurs, the semiconductor arm of Thomson. SGS Microelettronica originated in 1972 from the merger of two companies (the L'Aquila-based vacuum tube and semiconductor producer ATES (Aquila Tubi e Semiconduttori), and the Agrate Brianza-headquartered semiconductor specialist Società Generale Semiconduttori). By the mid-1980s, SGS had been under pressure from multiple larger American competitors, including Texas Instruments and Motorola. On 8 December 1994, the company completed its initial public offering on the Paris and New York stock exchanges. Owner Thomson SA sold its stake in the company in 1998 when the company also listed on the Italian Bourse in Milan, after which the firm adopted its current name of STMicroelectronics. In 1999, it acquired the research & development company UK-based VLSI-Vision CMOS Image Sensor, which had been a spin-off from Edinburgh University; following the purchase, it became STMicroelectronics' Imaging Division. In 2000, it purchased the semiconductor activities of the Canadian telecoms firm Nortel. That same year, ST also bought WaferScale Integration Inc. (WSI, Fremont, California), a vendor of EPROM and flash-memory-based programmable system chips; 2000s In 2001, ST became the third largest chipmaker (in terms of sales) behind Intel and Toshiba and had operations across 27 countries. The firm's customer base comprised a wide array of manufacturers across the consumer electronics, telecommunications, computer peripherals, automobiles, and security sectors. Also in 2002, Alcatel's Microelectronics division, which along with the incorporation of smaller ventures such as the UK company Synad Ltd, was acquired by ST, helping the company expand into the Wireless-LAN market. In 2007, the US-based video processing specialist Genesis Microchip was also bought. In 2005, long-running chief executive officer Pasquale Pistorio was succeeded by Carlo Bozotti, who had previously headed the memory products division and had been with the company’s predecessor since 1977. On 22 May 2007, ST and Intel created a joint venture in the memory application called Numonyx: this new company merged ST and Intel Flash Memory activities. Semiconductor market consolidation continued with ST and NXP announcing on 10 April 2008, the creation of a new joint venture of their mobile activities, with ST owning 80% of the new company and NXP 20%. This joint venture began on 20 August 2008. On 10 February 2009, ST Ericsson, a joint venture bringing together ST-NXP Wireless and Ericsson Mobile Platforms, was established. 2010s During the early 2010s, ST Ericsson, a 50/50 joint venture between STMicroelectronics and Ericsson, was active as a multinational manufacturer of wireless products and semiconductors that were typically supplied to mobile device manufacturers. Headquartered in Geneva, it was a fabless company, outsourcing semiconductor manufacturing to foundry companies. In March 2013, it was announced that ST Ericsson would be dissolved; ST took on all of ST-Ericsson products except for the LTE multimode modem that was transferred to Ericsson. In 2011, ST announced the creation of a joint lab with Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies to conduct research and innovation in the fields of biorobotics, smart systems and microelectronics. Past collaborations with Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies included DustBot, a platform that integrated self-navigating "service robots" for waste collection. Three years later, the MEMS division of ST was ranked as the biggest European competitor of Silex Microsystems. Starting in 2015, ST and SpaceX have collaborated on design of custom-made components for satellite communication. Starlink products have been co-designed with ST engineers located in France and Italy, produced in fabs located in France while packaging and testing was performed in both Malaysia and Malta. Amongst other elements, ST is responsible for the manufacture of the Starlink user terminals. In 2018, chief executive Carlo Bozotti was succeeded by Jean-Marc Chery. 2020s In 2023, ST partnered with Synopsys to design a working chip on Microsoft’s cloud platform, marking the first instance that artificial intelligence (AI) software had been utilized for chip design. In 2024, ST became the sixth shareholder of Quintauris, a joint company with the goal of standardizing RISC-V ecosystem. In 2025, the Italian government was reportedly seeking greater oversight of ST, and sought to appoint Marcello Sala, head of the economy ministry's department overseeing state-run firms and asset disposals, to ST's supervisory board; this was allegedly motived by the company's planned $300 million cost-cutting program that could have involved more than 2,000 job cuts in Italy. According to the company, 1,000 of the 2,800 positions to be eliminated around the world will be in France. On 3 June 2025, the ST division of France's General Confederation of Labour published a letter to ST leadership, criticising their relationship with Israel's military in the context of the Gaza genocide, such as the "ST-Up" startup incubator, which has been linked to "infiniDome", a startup developing GPS technology for drones, and "Lidwave", a startup developing real-time 4D mapping services, both allegedly intended for use by the IDF. As part of industrial action, CGT members at an STMicroelectronics factory in France engaged in a work stoppage against the company’s provision of chips and semiconductors for the Israeli military. In 2025, it was announced that ST had delivered in excess of five billion radio-frequency antenna chips for SpaceX's Starlink satellite network over a ten year period, and that this volume could be set to double within two years. In 2025, ST launched a new chip oriented towards the AI data centre market, the firm had co-developed this chip with Amazon Web Services (AWS). In February 2026, ST started the supply a range of chip solutions for AWS' data centres under a multi-year deal that was valued in excess of $1 billion. One month later, it launched high-volume production of its PIC100 photonics chip, which is targeted at the data centre market. == Shareholders ==

As of December 31, 2014, the shareholders were: • 68.4% public (New York Stock Exchange, Euronext Paris, Borsa Italiana Milano); • 4.1% treasury shares; • 27.6% STMicroelectronics Holding B.V.: • 50% FT1CI (Bpifrance 79.2% and French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA) 20.8%; previously ); • 50% Ministry of Economy and Finance of Italy . ==Manufacturing facilities==

Unlike fabless semiconductor companies, STMicroelectronics owns and operates its own semiconductor wafer fabs. The company owned five 8-inch (200 mm) wafer fabs and 1 12-inch (300 mm) wafer fab in 2006. Most of the production is scaled at 0.18 μm, 0.13 μm, 90 nm and 65 nm (measurements of transistor gate length). STMicroelectronics also owns back-end plants, where silicon dies are assembled and bonded into plastic or ceramic packages. Major sites include: Grenoble, France Grenoble is one of the company's most important R&D centres, employing around 4,000 staff. The Polygone site employs 2,200 staff and is one of the historical bases of the company (ex SGS). All the historical wafer fab lines are now closed but the site hosts the headquarters of many divisions (marketing, design, industrialization) and a R&D centre, focused on silicon and software design and fab process development. The Crolles site hosts a and a fab and was originally built as a common R&D centre for submicrometre technologies as part of the 1990 Grenoble 92 partnership between SGS-Thomson and CNET, the R&D center of French telecom company France Telecom. The fab was inaugurated by French president Jacques Chirac, on 27 February 2003. It includes an R&D centre which focuses on developing new nanometric technology processes for 90-nm to 32-nm scale using wafers and it was developed for The Crolles 2 Alliance. This alliance of STMicroelectronics, TSMC, NXP Semiconductors (formerly Philips semiconductor) and Freescale (formerly Motorola semiconductor) partnered in 2002 to develop the facility and to work together on process development. The technologies developed at the facility were also used by global semiconductor foundry TSMC of Taiwan, allowing TSMC to build the products developed in Crolles on behalf of the Alliance partners who required such foundry capacity. Rousset, France Employing around 3,000 staff, Rousset hosts several division headquarters including smartcards, microcontrollers, and EEPROM as well as several R&D centers. Rousset also hosts an 8-inch (200-mm) fab, which was opened on May 15, 2000 by French prime minister Lionel Jospin. The site opened in 1979 as a fab operated by Eurotechnique, a joint venture between Saint-Gobain of France and National Semiconductor of the US. Rousset was sold to Thomson-CSF in 1982 as part of the French government's 1981–82 nationalization of several industries. As part of the nationalisation, a former Thomson plant in the center of Aix-en-Provence operating since the 1960s was closed and staff were transferred to the new Rousset site. The original fab was upgraded into and later fab in 1996. It is now being shut down. The site also has a "Wafer Level Chip Scale Packaging" accreditation for eSIM ICs. In 1988, a small group of employees from the Thomson Rousset plant (including the director, Marc Lassus) founded a start-up company, Gemalto (formerly known as Gemplus), which became a leader in the smartcard industry. Tours, France Employing 1,500 staff, this site hosts a fab and R&D centres. Milan, Italy Employing 6,000 staff, the Milan facilities match Grenoble in importance. Agrate Brianza employs around 4,000 staff and is a historical base of the company (ex SGS). The site has several fab lines (including a fab) and an R&D center. Castelletto, employs 300 to 400 staff and hosts some divisions and R&D centres. Catania, Italy The Catania plant in Sicily employs 5,000 staff and hosts several R&D centers and divisions, focusing on flash memory technologies as well as two fabs. The plant was launched in 1961 by ATES to supply under licensing to RCA of the US and initially using germanium. The site's two major wafer fabs are a fab, opened in April 1997 by then-Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, and a fab that has never been completed and which was transferred in its current state to "Numonyx" in 2008. A new manufacturing facility for silicon carbide (SiC) substrates of 150 mm should open here in 2023. In October 2022, the EU supported STMicroelectronics for the construction of a silicon carbide wafer plant in Catania with €293 million through the Recovery and Resilience Facility to be completed in 2026, and in line with the European Chips Act. Caserta, Italy STmicro eSIM and SIM production facility for embedded form factor eSIM. Kirkop, Malta As of 2010, ST employed around 1,800 people in Kirkop, making it the largest private sector employer, and the country's leading exporter. Singapore In 1970, SGS created its first assembly back-end plant in Singapore, in the area of Toa Payoh. Then in 1981, SGS decided to build a wafer fab in Singapore. Converted up to fab, this is now an important wafer fab of the group. Ang Mo Kio also hosts some design centres. As of 2004, the site employed 6,000 staff. Tunis, Tunisia Application, design and support. about 110 employees. Bouskoura, Morocco Founded in 1979 as a radiofrequency products facility, the Bouskoura site now hosts back-end manufacturing activity, which includes chip testing and packaging. Since 2022 it also features a production line for silicon carbide products that primarily will be used in electric vehicles. Norrköping, Sweden The Norrköping plant is a wafer fab that, at the start of production in 2021, was the first to produce 200mm (8 in) Silicone Carbide wafers. The wafers are mostly used for SiC power devices. ==Other sites==

Administrative headquarters • Geneva, Switzerland: Corporate headquarter which hosts most of the ST top management. It totals some hundred of employees. • Paris: Marketing and support. Regional headquarters • Coppell, Texas: US headquarters. • Singapore: Headquarters for the Asia-Pacific region. • Tokyo: Headquarters for Japan and Korea operations. • Shanghai: Headquarters for China operations. Assembly plants • Malta: In 1981, SGS-Thomson (now STMicroelectronics) built its first assembly plant in Malta. STMicroelectronics is, as of 2008, the largest private employer on the island, employing around 1,800 people. • Muar, Malaysia: around 4000 employees. This site was built in 1974 by Thomson and is now an assembly plant. • Shenzhen, Guangdong province, China: In 1994, ST and the Shenzhen Electronics Group signed a partnership to construct and jointly operate an assembly plant (ST has majority with 60%). The plant is located in Futian Free Trade Zone and became operational in 1996. It has around 3,300 employees. A new assembly plant is built in Longgang since 2008, and closed up till 2014. The R&D, design, sales and marketing office is located in the Hi-tech industrial park in Nanshan, Shenzhen. • Calamba in the province of Laguna, Philippines: In 2008, ST acquired this plant from NXP Semiconductors. Initially as part of joint venture with NXP but later acquired the whole share turning it into a full-fledged STMicroelectronics Assembly and Testing plant. Currently it employs 2,000 employees. Design centres • Cairo, Egypt: Hardware and software design center, started in 2020, with 50 employees. • Rabat, Morocco: A design center that employs 160 people. • Naples, Italy: A design center employing 300 people. • Lecce, Italy: HW & SW Design Center which hosts 20 researchers in the Advanced System Technology group. • Ang Mo Kio, Singapore: In 1970, SGS created its first assembly back-end plant in Singapore, in the area of Toa Payoh. Then in 1981, SGS decided to build a wafer fab in Singapore. The Singapore technical engineers have been trained in Italy and the fab of Ang Mo Kio started to produce its first wafers in 1984. Converted up to 8 inch (200 mm) fab, this is now an important 8 inch (200 mm) wafer fab of the ST group. • Greater Noida, India: The Noida site was launched in 1992 to conduct software engineering activities. A silicon design centre was inaugurated in 1995. With 120 employees, it was the largest design center of the company outside Europe at the time. In 2006, the site was shifted to Greater Noida for further expansion. The site hosts mainly design teams. • Santa Clara, California, (Silicon Valley), United States: 120 staff in marketing, design and applications. • La Jolla, California, (San Diego, United States): 80 staff in design and applications. • Lancaster, Pennsylvania, United States: Application, support, and marketing. • Prague, Czech Republic: 100 to 200 employees. Application, design and support. • Tunis, Tunisia: 110 employees. Application, design and support. • Sophia Antipolis, near Nice, France: Design center with a few hundred employees. • Edinburgh, Scotland: 200 staff focused in the field of imaging and photon detection. • Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: In 1993, SGS-Thomson purchased the semiconductor activities of Nortel which owned in Ottawa an R&D center and a fab. The fab was closed in 2000, however, a design, R&D centre and sales office is operating in the city. • Toronto, Ontario, Canada: HW & SW Design Center primarily involved with the design of video processor ICs as part of ST's TVM Division. • Bangalore, India: HW and SW design center employing more than 250 people (Including the employees of ST Ericsson and Genesis Microchip). • Zaventem, Belgium: 100 employees. Design & Application Center. • Helsinki, Finland: Design Center. • Turku, Finland: Design Center. • Oulu, Finland: Design Center. • Tampere, Finland: Design Center. • Longmont, Colorado United States: Design Center. • Graz, Austria: NFC Competence Center. • Pisa, Italy: A design center employing more than 50 people. R&D, analog and digital design. Closing sites The Phoenix, Arizona 8 inch (200 mm) fab, the Carrollton, Texas 6 inch (150 mm) fab, and the Ain Sebaa, Morocco fab were beginning rampdown plans, and were destined to close by 2010. The Casablanca, Morocco site consists of two assembly parts (Bouskoura and Aïn Sebaâ) and totals around 4000 employees. It was opened in the 1960s by Thomson. The Bristol, United Kingdom site employing well over 300 at its peak (in 2001/2) but was ramped down to approx. 150 employees at close by early 2014. The Ottawa, Ontario, Canada plant (approx. 450 employees) was to be close down by 2013 end. Closed sites • Rennes, France hosted a 6-inch (150 mm) fab and was closed in 2004 • Rancho Bernardo, California, US a 4-inch (100 mm) fab created by Nortel and purchased by SGS-Thomson in 1994, after which it was converted into a 6-inch (150 mm) fab in 1996. • SGS's first presence in the US was a sales office based in Phoenix in the early 1980s. Later, under SGS-Thomson, an 8-inch (200 mm) fab was completed in Phoenix in 1995. The company's second 8" fab after Crolles 1, the site was first dedicated to producing microprocessors for Cyrix. On 10 July 2007, ST said that it would close this site, and in July 2010 the shell of the Phoenix PF1 FAB was bought by Western Digital Corporation. Future locations • On 8 August 2007, ST bought Nokia's microchip development team and plans to invest heavily in development of cellular ASIC applications. The purchase included Nokia's ASIC team in Southwood (UK) and the company plans several sites in Finland. • In June 2023, ST announced its partnership with GlobalFoundries to build a new factory in Crolles, France. ==See also==