NXP Semiconductors
More info
- Released
- 2006
- Predecessor
- Philips Semiconductors
- Headquarters
- Eindhoven, Netherlands
Philips's old chip division, best known today for the silicon in cars, access badges and contactless payment cards.
Philips sold its semiconductor business to a group of private equity firms in 2006, and the result was named NXP. The inheritance included I²C, the MIFARE cards and much of NFC, which Philips developed together with Sony. MIFARE Classic became notorious in 2008 when researchers broke its Crypto-1 cipher.
In 2015 NXP merged with Freescale, Motorola's spun-off chip unit, becoming one of the largest suppliers of automotive electronics. Qualcomm offered around $44 billion for the company in 2016 but walked away in 2018 when Chinese approval never arrived.