is a Japanese multinational

information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information technology syste ...

and

electronics The field of electronics is a branch of physics and electrical engineering that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons using electronic devices. Electronics uses active devices to control electron flow by amplification ...

corporation, headquartered in

Minato, Tokyo is a special ward in Tokyo, Japan. It is also called Minato City in English. It was formed in 1947 as a merger of Akasaka, Azabu and Shiba wards following Tokyo City's transformation into Tokyo Metropolis. The modern Minato ward exhibits t ...

. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before

rebranding Rebranding is a marketing strategy in which a new name, term, symbol, design, concept or combination thereof is created for an established brand with the intention of developing a new, differentiated identity in the minds of consumers, investo ...

in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network solutions, including

cloud computing Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage ( cloud storage) and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Large clouds often have functions distributed over mu ...

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech ...

(AI),

Internet of things The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other com ...

(IoT) platform, and

telecommunications Telecommunication is the transmission of information by various types of technologies over wire, radio, optical, or other electromagnetic systems. It has its origin in the desire of humans for communication over a distance greater than that ...

equipment and software to business enterprises, communications services providers and to government agencies, and has also been the biggest PC vendor in Japan since the 1980s when it launched the

PC-8000 series The is a line of personal computers developed for the Japanese market by NEC. The PC-8001 model was also sold in the United States and Canada as the PC-8001A. Original models of the NEC PC-8001B (or sometimes the NEC PC-8000) were also sold in s ...

. NEC was the world's fourth-largest PC manufacturer by 1990. Its

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical conductivity value falling between that of a conductor, such as copper, and an insulator, such as glass. Its resistivity falls as its temperature rises; metals behave in the opposite way ...

s business unit was the world's largest semiconductor company by annual revenue from 1985 to 1992, the second largest in 1995, one of the top three in 2000, and one of the top 10 in 2006. NEC spun off its semiconductor business to

Renesas Electronics is a Japanese semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, initially incorporated in 2002 as Renesas Technology, the consolidated entity of the semiconductor units of Hitachi and Mitsubishi excluding their dynamic random-access ...

and

Elpida Memory Micron Memory Japan, K.K. is a Japanese subsidiary of Micron Technology. It was formerly known as established in 1999 that developed, designed, manufactured and sold dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) products. It was also a semiconductor foun ...

. Once Japan's major electronics company, NEC has largely withdrawn from manufacturing since the beginning of the 21st century. NEC was #463 on the 2017 Fortune 500 list. NEC is a member of the

Sumitomo Group The is one of the largest Japanese ''keiretsu'', or business groups, founded by Masatomo Sumitomo (1585-1652) around 1615 during the early Edo period. History The Sumitomo Group traces its roots to a bookshop in Kyoto founded circa 1615 by Ma ...

History

NEC

Kunihiko Iwadare and Takeshiro Maeda established Nippon Electric Limited Partnership on August 31, 1898 by using facilities that they had bought from Miyoshi Electrical Manufacturing Company. Iwadare acted as the representative partner; Maeda handled company sales.

Western Electric The Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company officially founded in 1869. A wholly owned subsidiary of American Telephone & Telegraph for most of its lifespan, it served as the primary equipment ma ...

, which had an interest in the Japanese phone market, was represented by Walter Tenney Carleton. Carleton was also responsible for the renovation of the Miyoshi facilities. It was agreed that the partnership would be reorganized as a joint-stock company when the treaty would allow it. On July 17, 1899, the revised treaty between Japan and the United States went into effect. Nippon Electric Company, Limited was organized the same day with Western Electric Company to become the first Japanese

joint-venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

with foreign capital. Iwadare was named managing director. Ernest Clement and Carleton were named as directors. Maeda and Mototeru Fujii were assigned to be auditors. Iwadare, Maeda, and Carleton handled the overall management. The company started with the production, sales, and maintenance of telephones and

switch In electrical engineering, a switch is an electrical component that can disconnect or connect the conducting path in an electrical circuit, interrupting the electric current or diverting it from one conductor to another. The most common type of ...

es. NEC modernized the production facilities with the construction of the Mita Plant in 1901 at Mita Shikokumachi. It was completed in December 1902. The Japanese Ministry of Communications adopted a new technology in 1903: the common battery switchboard supplied by NEC. The common battery switchboards powered the subscriber phone, eliminating the need for a permanent magnet generator in each subscriber's phone. The switchboards were initially imported, but were manufactured locally by 1909. NEC started exporting telephone sets to China in 1904. In 1905, Iwadare visited Western Electric in the U.S. to see their management and production control. On his return to Japan, he discontinued the "oyakata" system of sub-contracting and replaced it with a new system where managers and employees were all direct employees of the company. Inefficiency was also removed from the production process. The company paid higher salaries with incentives for efficiency. New accounting and cost controls were put in place, and time clocks installed. Between 1899 and 1907 the number of telephone subscribers in Japan rose from 35,000 to 95,000. NEC entered the China market in 1908 with the implementation of the telegraph treaty between Japan and China. They also entered the Korean market, setting up an office in Seoul in January 1908. During the period of 1907 to 1912 sales rose from 1.6 million yen to 2 million yen. The expansion of the Japanese phone service had been a key part of NEC's success during this period. This expansion was about to take a pause. The Ministry of Communications delayed a third expansion plan of the phone service in March 1913, despite having 120,000 potential telephone-subscribers waiting for phone installations. NEC sales fell sixty percent between 1912 and 1915. During the interim, Iwadare started importing appliances, including electric fans, kitchen appliances, washing machines, and vacuum cleaners. Electric fans had never been seen in Japan before. The imports were intended to prop up company sales. In 1916, the government resumed the delayed telephone-expansion plan, adding 75,000 subscribers and 326,000 kilometers of new toll lines. Thanks to this third expansion plan, NEC expanded at a time when much of the rest of Japanese industry contracted.

1919 to 1938

In 1919, NEC started its first association with

Sumitomo The is one of the largest Japanese ''keiretsu'', or business groups, founded by Masatomo Sumitomo (1585-1652) around 1615 during the early Edo period. History The Sumitomo Group traces its roots to a bookshop in Kyoto founded circa 1615 by Mas ...

, engaging Sumitomo Densen Seizosho to manufacture cables. As part of the venture, NEC provided cable manufacturing equipment to Sumitomo Densen. Rights to Western Electrics duplex cable patents were also transferred to Sumitomo Densen. The

Great Kantō earthquake Great may refer to: Descriptions or measurements * Great, a relative measurement in physical space, see Size * Greatness, being divine, majestic, superior, majestic, or transcendent People * List of people known as "the Great" *Artel Great (born ...

struck Japan in 1923. 140,000 people were killed and 3.4 million were left homeless. Four of NEC's factories were destroyed, killing 105 of NEC's engineers and workers. Thirteen of Tokyo's telephone offices were destroyed by fire. Telephone and telegraph service was interrupted by damage to telephone cables. In response, the Ministry of Communications accelerated major programs to install automatic telephone switching systems and enter radio broadcastin

The first automatic switching systems were the Strowger switch, Strowger-type model made by Automatic Telephone Manufacturing Co. (ATM) in the United Kingdom. NEC participated in the installation of the automatic switching systems, ultimately becoming the general sales agent for ATM. NEC developed its own Strowger-type automatic switching system in 1924, a first in Japan. One of the plants almost leveled during the Kanto earthquake, the Mita Plant, was chosen to support expanding production. A new three-story steel-reinforced concrete building was built, starting in 1925. It was modeled after the

Hawthorne Works The Hawthorne Works was a large factory complex of the Western Electric Company in Cicero, Illinois. Named after the original name of the town, Hawthorne, it opened in 1905 and operated until 1983. At its peak of operations, Hawthorne employed 4 ...

. NEC started its radio communications business in 1924. Japan's first radio broadcaster, Radio Tokyo was founded in 1924 and started broadcasting in 1925. NEC imported the broadcasting equipment from Western Electric. The expansion of radio broadcasting into Osaka and Nagoya marked the emergence of radio as an Industry. NEC established a radio research unit in 1924. NEC started developing electron tubes in 1925. By 1930, they were manufacturing their first 500 W radio transmitter. They provided the Chinese Xinjing station with a 100 kW radio broadcasting system in 1934. Photo-telegraphic equipment developed by NEC transmitted photos of the accession ceremony of

Emperor Shōwa Emperor , commonly known in English-speaking countries by his personal name , was the 124th emperor of Japan, ruling from 25 December 1926 until his death in 1989. Hirohito and his wife, Empress Kōjun, had two sons and five daughters; he was ...

. The ceremony was held in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the c ...

in 1928. The Newspapers

Asahi Shimbun is one of the four largest newspapers in Japan. Founded in 1879, it is also one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. Its circulation, which was 4.57 million for its morning edition a ...

and

Mainichi Shimbun The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English language news website called ''The Mainichi'' (prev ...

were competing to cover the ceremony. The Asahi Shimbun was using a

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational conglomerate corporation and the largest industrial manufacturing company in Europe headquartered in Munich with branch offices abroad. The principal divisions of the corporation are ''Industry'', ''E ...

device. The Mainichi was planning to use French photo-telegraphic equipment. In the end, both papers acquired and used the NEC product, due to its faster transmission rate and higher picture quality. In 1929 Nippon Electric provided Japan's Ministry of Communications with the A-type switching system, the first of these systems to be developed in Japan. Nippon supplied Japan's Ministry of Communications with nonloaded line carrier equipment for long-distance telephone channels in 1937.

1938 to 1945

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

was described by the company as being the blackest days of its history. In 1938 the Mita and Tamagawa plants were placed under military control, with direct supervision by military officers. In 1939, Nippon Electric established a research laboratory in the Tamagawa plant. It became the first Japanese company to successfully test microwave multiplex communications. On December 22, 1941, the enemy property control law was passed. NEC shares owned by International Standard Electric Corporation (ISE), an

ITT ITT may refer to: Communication * Infantry-Tank Telephone, a device allowing infantrymen to speak to the occupants of armoured vehicles. Mathematics *Intuitionistic type theory, other name of Martin-Löf Type Theory *Intensional type theory B ...

subsidiary, and Western Electric affiliate were seized. Capital and technical relations were abruptly severed. The "Munitions Company Law" was passed in October 1943, placing overall control of NEC plants under military jurisdiction. The Ueno plant was leveled by the military attack in March 1945. Fire bombings in April and May heavily damaged the Tamagawa Plant, reducing its capacity by forty percent. The Okayama Plant was totally destroyed by a bombing attack in June of the same year. At the end of the war, NEC's production had been substantially reduced by damage to its facilities, and by material and personnel shortages.

1945 to 1980

After the war, production was slowly returned to civilian use. NEC re-opened its major plants by the end of January 1946. NEC began transistor research and development in 1950. It started exporting radio-broadcast equipment to Korea under the first major postwar contract in 1951. NEC received the

Deming Prize The Deming Prize is the longest-running and one of the highest awards on TQM (Total Quality Management) in the world. It recognizes both individuals for their contributions to the field of Total Quality Management (TQM) and businesses that have s ...

for excellence in quality control in 1952. Computer research and development began in 1954. NEC produced the first

crossbar switch In electronics and telecommunications, a crossbar switch (cross-point switch, matrix switch) is a collection of switches arranged in a matrix configuration. A crossbar switch has multiple input and output lines that form a crossed pattern of int ...

ing system in Japan. It was installed at Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation (currently

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation , commonly known as NTT, is a Japanese telecommunications company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Ranked 55th in ''Fortune'' Global 500, NTT is the fourth largest telecommunications company in the world in terms of revenue, as well as the third la ...

; NTT) in 1956. NEC began joint research and development with NTT of electronic switching systems the same year. NEC established Taiwan Telecommunication Company as their first postwar overseas joint venture in 1958. They completed the NEAC-1101 and NEAC-1102 computers the same year. In September 1958, NEC built their first fully transistorized computer, the NEAC-2201, with parts made solely in Japan. One year later, they demonstrated it at the UNESCO AUTOMATH show in Paris. The company began integrated circuit research and development in 1960. In 1963 NEC started trading as American Depositary Receipts, ten million shares being sold in the United States. Nippon Electric New York (now NEC America Inc.) was incorporated in the same year. NEC logo 1963

NEC supplied KDD with submarine cable systems for laying in the Pacific Ocean in 1964. They supplied short-haul 24 channel PCM carrier transmission equipment to NTT in 1965. NEC de Mexico, S. A. de C. V., NEC do Brasil, S. A., NEC Australia Pty. Ltd. were established between 1968 and 1969. NEC supplied Comsat Corporation with the SPADE satellite communications system in 1971. In 1972, Switzerland ordered a NEC satellite communications earth station. The same year, a small transportable satellite communications earth station was set up in China. Shares of NEC common stock were listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in 1973. NEC also designed an automated broadcasting system for the Japan Broadcasting Corporation the same year. NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH was also established. In 1974, the ACOS series computer was introduced. The New Central Research Laboratories were completed in 1975. In 1977, Japan's National Space Development Agency launched the NEC geostationary meteorological satellite, named Himawari. During this period NEC introduced the concept of "C&C", the integration of computers and communications. NEC America Inc. opened a plant in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

to manufacture PABX and telephone systems in 1978. They also acquired Electronic Arrays, Inc. of

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

the same year to start semiconductor chip production in the United States.

1980 to 2000

In 1980, NEC created the first

digital signal processor A digital signal processor (DSP) is a specialized microprocessor chip, with its architecture optimized for the operational needs of digital signal processing. DSPs are fabricated on MOS integrated circuit chips. They are widely used in audio s ...

, the NEC µPD7710. NEC Semiconductors (UK) Ltd. was established in 1981, producing VLSIs and LSIs. NEC introduced the 8-bit

PC-8800 The , commonly shortened to PC-88, are a brand of Zilog Z80-based 8-bit home computers released by Nippon Electric Company (NEC) in 1981 and primarily sold in Japan. The PC-8800 series sold extremely well and became one of the three major Japan ...

series personal computer in 1981, followed by the 16-bit PC-9800 series in 1982. In 1983 NEC stock was listed on the Basel, Geneva, and Zurich, Switzerland exchanges. NEC quickly became the dominant leader of the Japanese PC industry, holding 80% market share. NEC changed its English company name to NEC Corporation the same year. NEC Information Systems, Inc. started manufacturing computers and related products in the United States in 1984. NEC also released the V-series processor the same year. In 1986, NEC delivered its SX-2 supercomputer to the

Houston Advanced Research Center The Houston Advanced Research Center, commonly referred to as HARC, is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization based in The Woodlands, Texas dedicated to improving human and ecosystem well-being through the application of sustainability science a ...

The Woodlands, Texas The Woodlands is a special-purpose district and census-designated place (CDP) in the U.S. state of Texas in the Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan statistical area. The Woodlands is primarily located in Montgomery County, with p ...

. In the same year, the NEAX61 digital switching system went into service. In 1987, NEC Technologies (UK) Ltd. was established in the United Kingdom to manufacture VCRs, printers, and

computer monitor A computer monitor is an output device that displays information in pictorial or textual form. A discrete monitor comprises a visual display, support electronics, power supply, housing, electrical connectors, and external user controls. The ...

s and mobile telephones for Europe. Also that year, NEC licensed technology from

Hudson Soft was a Japanese video game company that released numerous games for video game consoles, home computers and mobile phones, mainly from the 1980s to the 2000s. It was headquartered in the Midtown Tower in Tokyo Midtown, Akasaka, Minato, T ...

, a

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This feedba ...

manufacturer, to create a

video game console A video game console is an electronic device that outputs a video signal or image to display a video game that can be played with a game controller. These may be home consoles, which are generally placed in a permanent location connected to ...

called the

PC-Engine The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, though ...

(later released in 1989 as the TurboGrafx-16 in the North American market). Its successor, the

PC-FX The is a 32-bit home video game console developed by NEC and Hudson Soft. It was released in 1994 and discontinued in February 1998, as NEC's final home video game console. Based on the NEC V810 CPU and CD-ROM, it was intended as the successor t ...

, was released in Japan in 1994. While the PC-Engine achieved a considerable following, it has been said that NEC held a much stronger influence on the video game industry through its role as a leading semiconductor manufacturer than through any of its direct video game products. NEC USA, Inc. was established in 1989 as a holding company for North American operations. In 1983, NEC Brasil ( pt), the Brazilian subsidiary of NEC, was forced to nationalize its corporate stock under orders of the Brazilian military government, whereby shareholder control of NEC Brasil was ceded to the private equity group

Brasilinvest Brasilinvest Group - Brazilian company, established in 1975 by Mário Garnero, Headquarters in São Paulo. Over its 35 years of history, the Brasilinvest Group has consolidated the assembly of dozens of economic projects and entrepreneurial manag ...

of Brazilian investment banker

Mário Garnero Mário Garnero (Campinas, 15 August 1937) is a Brazilian banker and entrepreneur. Biography Born in 1937, Mário Garnero obtained a law degree from the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo ( Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paul ...

. Since NEC Brasil's foundation in 1968, it had become the major supplier of telecommunications equipment to the Brazilian government. In 1986, the then Minister of Communications

Antônio Carlos Magalhães Antônio Carlos Peixoto de Magalhães (4 September 1927 – 20 July 2007), also known by his initials ACM, was a Brazilian politician. He served as Governor of Bahia three times and represented Bahia in the Senate of Brazil three times. Magalhãe ...

put NEC Brasil in financial difficulties by suspending all government contract payments to the company, whose main client was the federal government. With the subsidiary in crisis, the NEC Corporation in Japan sold NEC Brasil to

Organizações Globo Grupo Globo ( en, Globo Group), formerly known as Organizações Globo ( en, Globo Organization), is a Brazilian private mass media conglomerate based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Founded in 1925 by Irineu Marinho, it is the largest media group i ...

for only onemillion

US dollars The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

(US$1,000,000). Shortly thereafter, Magalhães resumed the government contracts and corresponding payments, and NEC Brazil became valued at over 350million US dollars (US$350,000,000). Suspicions regarding the NEC-Globo deal, which included among other things the unilateral breach of contract by Globo founder

Roberto Marinho Roberto Pisani Marinho (December 3, 1904 – August 6, 2003) was a Brazilian businessman who was the owner of media conglomerate Grupo Globo from 1925 to 2003, and during this period expanded the company from newspapers to radio and television. ...

regarding the management of a regional television station in the Brazilian state of

Bahia Bahia ( , , ; meaning "bay") is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (sta ...

, took to the national stage only in 1992 during the first corruption charges against the impeached Brazilian president

Fernando Collor de Mello Fernando Affonso Collor de Mello (; born 12 August 1949) is a Brazilian politician who served as the 32nd president of Brazil from 1990 to 1992, when he resigned in a failed attempt to stop his impeachment trial by the Brazilian Senate. Coll ...

. Organizações Globo subsequently sold their shares in NEC Brazil, which hit their all-time high during the state monopoly years, back to NEC Corporation in 1999 following the break-up and privatization of the Brazilian state-owned telephone monopoly

Telebrás Telebras is a Brazilian telecommunications company which was the state-owned monopoly telephone system. It was broken up in July 1998 into twelve separate companies, nicknamed the 'Baby Bras' companies, that were auctioned to private bidders. The ...

.Lobato, Elvira
"Globo vende a Nec para os japoneses"
''Folha de S.Paulo''. 31 July 1999. Page accessed 28 December 2017. In 1990, the new head office building, known as the " Super Tower", was completed in

Shiba, Tokyo Shiba (芝) is an area of Minato ward in Tokyo, Japan and one of districts in the Shiba area. Shiba area Shiba was a ward of Tokyo City from 1878 to 1947. It was merged with Akasaka and Azabu wards to form Minato ward on March 15, 1947. The ...

. Additionally, joint-venture agreements were established to manufacture and market digital electronic switching systems and LSIs in China. In 1993 NEC's asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) switching system, the NEAX61 (Nippon Electronic Automatic Exchange) ATM Service Node, went into service in the United States. NEC Europe, Ltd. was established as a holding company for European operations the same year. The NEC C&C Research Laboratories, NEC Europe, Ltd. were opened in Germany in 1994. NEC (China) Co, Ltd. was established as a holding company for Chinese operations in 1996. In 1997 NEC developed 4Gbit DRAM, and their semiconductor group was honored with one of the first Japan Quality Awards. In 1998, NEC opened the world's most advanced semiconductor R&D facility. NEC Versa 6O1OH

NEC had been the no. 1 personal computer vendor in Japan during the 1980s, but it faced increasing competition from

Fujitsu is a Japanese multinational information and communications technology equipment and services corporation, established in 1935 and headquartered in Tokyo. Fujitsu is the world's sixth-largest IT services provider by annual revenue, and the la ...

Seiko Epson Seiko Epson Corporation, or simply known as Epson, is a Japanese multinational electronics company and one of the world's largest manufacturers of computer printers and information- and imaging-related equipment. Headquartered in Suwa, Nagano ...

and

IBM Japan IBM has had business internationally since before the company had a name. Early leaders of the companies that would eventually become IBM (Mr Hollerith, Mr Flint, and Mr Watson) all were involved in doing international business. In those early day ...

. Nevertheless, by the early 1990s, NEC was still the largest, having well over 50% market share in the Japanese market. Competition heated up later as rival Fujitsu started to aggressively market its computers, which were industry standard (

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel based on the Intel 8086 microprocessor and its 8088 variant. The 8086 was intr ...

) instead of NEC's indigenous models. In June 1995, NEC purchased the California-based Packard Bell company to produce desktop PCs in a common manufacturing plant for the North American market. As a result, NEC Technologies (USA) was merged with Packard Bell to create Packard Bell NEC Inc. By 1997, NEC's share was reduced to about 35%. NEC celebrated their 100th anniversary in 1999.

2000 to present

Kaoru Yano cropped 2 Kaoru Yano and Sebastian Pinera 20101115

In 2000, NEC formed a joint-venture with

Samsung SDI Samsung SDI Co., Ltd. () is a battery and electronic materials manufacturer headquartered in Yongin, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea. Samsung SDI operates its business with Energy Solutions and Electronic Materials segment. The Energy Solution segment ma ...

to manufacture

OLED An organic light-emitting diode (OLED or organic LED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound that emits light i ...

displays. Around this time, NEC also collaborated with the UK Government to provide schools in the country with projectors for use in classrooms, most of which are still in use to this day.

NEC Electronics is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network solut ...

Corporation was separated from NEC in 2002 as a new semiconductor company. NEC Laboratories America, Inc. (NEC Labs) started in November 2002 as a merger of NEC Research Institute (NECI) and NEC USA's Computer and Communications Research Laboratory (CCRL). NEC built the

Earth Simulator The is a series of supercomputers deployed at Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology Yokohama Institute of Earth Sciences. Earth Simulator (first generation) The first generation of Earth Simulator, developed by the Japanese go ...

Computer (ESC), the fastest

supercomputer A supercomputer is a computer with a high level of performance as compared to a general-purpose computer. The performance of a supercomputer is commonly measured in floating-point operations per second ( FLOPS) instead of million instructions ...

in the world from 2002 to 2004, and since produced the

NEC N343i The NEC N343i is a GSM 900 – GSM 1800 – GSM 1900 mobile phone which was manufactured by NEC is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the ...

in 2006. In 2003 NEC had a 20.8% market share in the personal computer market in Japan, slightly ahead of Fujitsu. In 2004, NEC abandoned not only the OLED business, but the display business as a whole, by selling off their

plasma display A plasma display panel (PDP) is a type of flat panel display that uses small cells containing plasma: ionized gas that responds to electric fields. Plasma televisions were the first large (over 32 inches diagonal) flat panel displays to be releas ...

business and exiting from the joint-venture with Samsung SDI. Samsung bought all of the shares and related patents owned by NEC, incorporating Samsung OLED, which subsequently merged with Samsung Display. In 2007, NEC and

Nissan , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...

Co. Corp. started evaluating a joint venture to produce

lithium ion A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery which uses the reversible reduction of lithium ions to store energy. It is the predominant battery type used in portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles. It also se ...

batteries for

hybrid Hybrid may refer to: Science * Hybrid (biology), an offspring resulting from cross-breeding ** Hybrid grape, grape varieties produced by cross-breeding two ''Vitis'' species ** Hybridity, the property of a hybrid plant which is a union of two dif ...

and electric cars. The two companies established Automotive Energy Supply Corporation as a result. On April 23, 2009,

Renesas Technology is a Japanese semiconductor manufacturer headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, initially incorporated in 2002 as Renesas Technology, the consolidated entity of the semiconductor units of Hitachi and Mitsubishi excluding their dynamic random-access memo ...

Corp and NEC Electronics Corp struck a basic agreement to merge by around April 2010. On April 1, 2010 NEC Electronics and Renesas Technology merged forming

which is set to be fourth largest semiconductor company according to iSuppli published data. By Q3 2010, NEC held a 19.8% market share in the PC market in Japan. On January 27, 2011, NEC formed a joint venture with Chinese PC maker

Lenovo Lenovo Group Limited, often shortened to Lenovo ( , ), is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology company specializing in designing, manufacturing, and marketing consumer electronics, Personal computer, personal computers, ...

, the fourth largest PC maker in the world. As part of the deal, the companies said in a statement they will establish a new company called Lenovo NEC Holdings B.V., which will be registered in the Netherlands. NEC will receive US$175 million from Lenovo through the issuance of Lenovo's shares. Lenovo, through a unit, will own a 51% stake in the joint venture, while NEC will hold a 49% stake. In February 2011, ''

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg Televi ...

'' said the joint venture would allow Lenovo to expand in the field of servers, and NEC's Masato Yamamoto said NEC would be able to grow in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. On January 26, 2012, NEC Corporation announced that it would cut 10,000 jobs globally due to a big loss on NEC's consolidated financial statement in line with the economic crisis in Europe and lagged in the development of smartphones in the domestic market compared to Apple and Samsung. Previously, in January 2009 NEC has cut about 20,000 jobs, mainly in sluggish semiconductor and liquid crystal display related businesses. In 2013 NEC was the biggest PC server manufacturer in Japan, with a 23.6% share. In August 2014, NEC Corporation was commissioned to build a super-fast undersea data transmission cable linking the United States and Japan for a consortium of international companies consisting of China Mobile International, China Telecom Global, Global Transit,

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

KDDI () is a Japanese telecommunications operator formed on October 1, 2000 through the merger of DDI Corp. (Daini-Denden Inc.), KDD (Kokusai Denshin Denwa) Corp. (itself a former listed state-owned enterprise privatized in 1998), and IDO Corp. It ...

and SingTel. The pipeline went online June 30, 2016. It exited from the smartphone market in 2015 by dissolving

NEC Mobile Communications NEC Mobile Communications was a mobile phone manufacturer established 1 May 2010. It started as a joint venture among three Japanese electronics manufacturers NEC, Casio and Hitachi, where NEC owned 70.74%, Casio 20.00% and Hitachi 9.26%. At one ...

, bailing out the other participants in the smartphone joint-venture. In April 2017, KEMET Corporation announced it would purchase a 61% controlling interest in NEC Tokin from NEC, making NEC Tokin its wholly owned subsidiary. Once the purchase is complete, the company will change its name to "Tokin Corporation". In July 2018, NEC established its subsidiary, NEC X, in

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...

, to fast-track technologies and business ideas selected from inside and outside NEC. NEC X created a corporate accelerator program that works with

entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

, start-ups and existing companies to help them develop new products that leverage NEC's emerging technologies. In August 2018,

Envision Energy Envision Energy () is a Chinese multinational corporation headquartered in Shanghai that provides wind turbines and energy management software. History Envision was founded by Lei Zhang in 2007 in Jiangyin, Jiangsu in the east region of Chin ...

struck an agreement with

and NEC to acquire their automotive battery joint venture. In December 2018, NEC announced that it would acquire KMD, the largest Danish IT company, for $1.2 billion to strengthen its digital government business. NEC has sold its sixty-year-old

lighting Lighting or illumination is the deliberate use of light to achieve practical or aesthetic effects. Lighting includes the use of both artificial light sources like lamps and light fixtures, as well as natural illumination by capturing daylig ...

business in April 2019. As of September 2019, NEC is the largest supplier of AI surveillance technology in the world. In the first half of 2020, NEC sold a majority stake in

NEC Display Solutions Sharp NEC Display Solutions (Sharp/NEC; formerly NEC Display Solutions or NDS and NEC-Mitsubishi Electric Visual Systems or NEC-Mitsubishi or NM Visual) is a manufacturer of computer monitors and large-screen public-information displays, and has s ...

, the professional display subsidiary, to

Sharp Corporation is a Japanese multinational corporation that designs and manufactures electronic products, headquartered in Sakai-ku, Sakai, Osaka Prefecture. Since 2016 it has been majority owned by the Taiwan-based Foxconn Group. Sharp employs more than 5 ...

and decided to gradually curtail the money-losing

energy storage Energy storage is the capture of energy produced at one time for use at a later time to reduce imbalances between energy demand and energy production. A device that stores energy is generally called an accumulator or battery. Energy comes in ...

business throughout the decade. Upon the suggested banning of

Huawei Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. ( ; ) is a Chinese multinational technology corporation headquartered in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. It designs, develops, produces and sells telecommunications equipment, consumer electronics and various smar ...

's 5G equipment led by the United States in 2020, being a diminished supplier, NEC was galvanized to ramp up its relatively small 5G network business to fill the void in the

telecommunications equipment Telecommunications equipment (also telecoms equipment or communications equipment) are hardware which are used for the purposes of telecommunications. Since the 1990s the boundary between telecoms equipment and IT hardware has become blurred as a ...

markets of the United States and the United Kingdom. NTT, the largest carrier in Japan, invested $596 million for a 4.8 percent stake in NEC to assist this move. In December 2020, NEC acquired Swiss digital banking solution developer

Avaloq Avaloq is a Swiss company that develops and provides software for core banking. The software system, Avaloq Banking Suite, is used by more than 140 banks worldwide. Background Core banking includes information about customers, transactions and ...

for US$2.2 billion.

Operations

As of July 2018, NEC has 6 larger business segments - Public, Enterprise, Network Services, System Platform, Global, and Others. It has renamed its Telecom Carrier business to Network Service. Principal subsidiaries of NEC include: *

NEC Corporation of America NEC Corporation of America (NECAM) is the principal subsidiary of the multinational IT company NEC in the United States. NEC Corporation of America was formed on July 1, 2006, from the combined operations of NEC America, NEC Solutions (America) ...

Netcracker Technology Netcracker Technology Corp., a wholly owned subsidiary of NEC Corporation, is a provider of business support system (BSS), operations support systems (OSS) and software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) solu ...

of America (A

Sharp Sharp or SHARP may refer to: Acronyms * SHARP (helmet ratings) (Safety Helmet Assessment and Rating Programme), a British motorcycle helmet safety rating scheme * Self Help Addiction Recovery Program, a charitable organisation founded in 19 ...

-owned company as of July 2020) * NEC Europe * KMD *

File:NEC Düsseldorf 32.jpg, The European headquarters of Renesas Electronics Europe in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...

, Germany. (formerly NEC Electronics (Europe)) File:JTPS-102.jpg,

Japan Ground Self-Defense Force The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force ( ja, 陸上自衛隊, Rikujō Jieitai), , also referred to as the Japanese Army, is the land warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Created on July 1, 1954, it is the largest of the three service b ...

J/TPS-102 Self-propelled ground-based early warning 3D radar File:NEC Kobe system center 02.jpg, NEC's

Kobe Kobe ( , ; officially , ) is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture Japan. With a population around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Tokyo and Yokohama. It is located in Kansai region, whic ...

system center

Products

NEC MobilePro The MobilePro is a discontinued line of personal digital assistants manufactured by NEC. Most models in the MobilePro range were handheld PCs with almost full size keyboards and a compact form placing them between being a palmtop and a subnotebook. ...

- a handheld computer running

Windows CE Windows Embedded Compact, formerly Windows Embedded CE, Windows Powered and Windows CE, is an operating system subfamily developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows Embedded family of products. Unlike Windows Embedded Standard, which is base ...

* NEC Aspire hybrid small business phone system * Electric vehicle batteries ( Automotive Energy Supply Corporation, a joint-venture between Nissan, NEC Corporation and NEC TOKIN) * NEC mobile phone (see

NEC e616 {{Notability, Products, date=March 2015 The NEC e616 mobile phone is a handheld 3G phone from NEC Corporation. Rechargeable battery The e616 takes Lithium ion batteries, which are available in different capacities: * 780 mA·h standard battery ...

) * NEC America

MultiSync A multiple-sync (multisync) monitor, also known as a multiscan or multimode monitor, is a raster-scan analog video monitor that can properly synchronise with multiple horizontal and vertical scan rates. In contrast, fixed frequency monitors can o ...

Monitors and Fax devices1 * NEC digital cinema projector * NEC Home Electronics (USA), Inc. / NEC MultiSpeed laptop PCs, MultiSync series PC monitors and Data Projectors *NEC Home Electronics (USA), Inc. / TV, Projection TV, VCRs and Home Audio (CD, Amplifiers, Receivers) *NEC Technologies, Inc. /

VERSA is a Japanese multinational information technology and electronics corporation, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. The company was known as the Nippon Electric Company, Limited, before rebranding in 1983 as NEC. It provides IT and network solut ...

series notebook PCs * NEC Information Systems, Inc. POWERMATE desktop PCs * NEC Information Systems, Inc. Valuestar / NEC POWERMATE

hybrid computer Hybrid computers are computers that exhibit features of analog computers and digital computers. The digital component normally serves as the controller and provides logical and Numerical analysis, numerical operations, while the analog component ...

* NEC (Division unknown) Car Stereos and Keyless Entry Systems *

PC Engine The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, thoug ...

(TurboGrafx-16 in US) and all related hardware and successors; co-produced by

. *

NEC V20 The NEC V20 is a microprocessor that was designed and produced by NEC. It is both pin compatible and object code compatible with the Intel 8088, with an instruction set architecture (ISA) similar to that of the Intel 80188 with some extension ...

NEC V25 The NEC V25 (μPD70320) is the microcontroller version of the NEC V20 processor. Features include: * NEC V20 core: 8-bit external data path, 20-bit address bus, machine code compatible with the Intel 8088 * Timers * Internal interrupt controller ...

TurboExpress The TurboExpress is an 8-bit handheld game console by NEC Home Electronics, released in late 1990 in Japan and the United States, branded as the PC Engine GT in Japan and TurboExpress Handheld Entertainment System in the U.S. It is essentially a ...

Defense products include: * J/TPS-102 Self-propelled ground-based

early warning An early warning system is a warning system that can be implemented as a chain of information communication systems and comprises sensors, event detection and decision subsystems for early identification of hazards. They work together to for ...

3D radar (

JGSDF The Japan Ground Self-Defense Force ( ja, 陸上自衛隊, Rikujō Jieitai), , also referred to as the Japanese Army, is the land warfare branch of the Japan Self-Defense Forces. Created on July 1, 1954, it is the largest of the three service b ...

) * Broadband multipurpose radio system (JGSDF) * Advanced Combat Infantry Equipment System

CIES The International Centre for Sports Studies, known mostly by the initials CIES from the French ''Centre International d'Etude du Sport'', is an independent, research and education organization, located in Neuchâtel, Switzerland. It had a resea ...

(

JSDF The Japan Self-Defense Forces ( ja, 自衛隊, Jieitai; abbreviated JSDF), also informally known as the Japanese Armed Forces, are the unified ''de facto''Since Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution outlaws the formation of armed forces, t ...

) - Major subcontractor *

Howa is a Japanese machinery manufacturer. The company is known internationally for their production of military and civilian firearms. However, they also manufacture products such as machine tools, sweeping vehicles and windows and doors. Histor ...

rifle system (

) - Major subcontractor as part of ACIES

Laptops

* ProSpeed * Versa pro type VB December 2016

Supercomputers

* 1983 Announced the SX-1 and SX-2 supercomputers * 1989 Introduction of SX-3 * 1994 First announcement of SX-4 * 1999 Delivery of SX-5 * 2002 Introduced SX-6 * 2002 Installation of the

, the world's fastest supercomputer from 2002 to 2004 reaching a speed of 35,600 gigaflops * 2005

NEC SX-8 The SX-8 is a supercomputer built by NEC Corporation. The SX-8 Series implements an eight-way SMP system in a compact node module and uses an enhanced version of the single chip vector processor that was introduced with the SX-6. The NEC SX- ...

in production * 2006 Announced the SX-8R * 2007 Announced the SX-9 * 2011 First announcement of the NEC SX-9's successor * 2013 Announced the SX-ACE * 2017 Announced the

SX-Aurora TSUBASA The NEC SX-Aurora TSUBASA is a vector processor of the NEC SX architecture family. Unlike previous SX supercomputers, the SX-Aurora TSUBASA is provided as a PCIe card, termed by NEC as a "Vector Engine" (VE). Eight VE cards can be inserted into a v ...

, computing platform that expands the horizons of supercomputing, Artificial Intelligence and Big Data analytics.

Achievements

Achievements of NEC include: * the discovery of single-walled carbon nanotubes by

Sumio Iijima is a Japanese physicist and inventor, often cited as the inventor of carbon nanotubes. Although carbon nanotubes had been observed prior to his "invention", Iijima's 1991 paper generated unprecedented interest in the carbon nanostructures and ...

* the invention of the widely used MUX-scan

design for test Design for testing or design for testability (DFT) consists of IC design techniques that add testability features to a hardware product design. The added features make it easier to develop and apply manufacturing tests to the designed hardware. Th ...

methodology (contrast with the IBM-developed

level-sensitive scan design Within the field of electronics Level-sensitive scan design (LSSD) is part of an integrated circuit manufacturing test process. It is a DFT scan design method which uses separate system and scan clocks to distinguish between normal and test mode ...

methodology) * the world's first demonstration of the one-

qubit In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical system, ...

rotation gate in solid state devices. * As for mobile phones, NEC pioneered key technologies like color displays, 3G support, dual screens and camera modules. * Developed a facial recognition system able to detect and distinguish human faces through medical masks. * Released the first home console video game system to use compact discs, being the first widely available product to use compact discs as a platform for interactive video entertainment outside of home computer use.

Sponsorships

NEC was the main (title) sponsor of the

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...

competition until 2002, when BNP Paribas took over the sponsorship. NEC between 1982 and 2012 sponsored the

NEC Cup The NEC Cup was a Go competition, supported by NEC Corporation between 1982 and 2012. Biography The NEC Cup was a Go competition used by the Japanese Nihon-Kiin. Unlike the big three titles in Japan, the NEC Cup is a single knockout tournament wh ...

, a Go tournament in Japan. NEC between 1986 and 2003 sponsored the

NEC Shun-Ei The NEC Shun-Ei was a Nihon-Kiin Go competition This is a list of professional Go tournaments, for competitors in the board game of ''Go''. The tradition, initiated by the Honinbo Tournament in Japan, is for an event to be run annually, leadi ...

, a Go tournament for young players in Japan. NEC sponsored the English football club Everton from 1985 to 1995. The 1995 FA Cup Final triumph was Everton's final game of the decade-long NEC sponsorship, and Danka took over as sponsors. NEC signed a deal to sponsor the Sauber F1 Team from the

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

season until the 2014 season. NEC sponsored the Sahara Force India F1 Team for the 2015 season until its demise during the 2018 season. Since then NEC has sponsored its successor

Racing Point Racing Point F1 Team, which competed as BWT Racing Point F1 Team and commonly known as Racing Point, was a British motor racing team and constructor that Racing Point UK entered into the Formula One World Championship. The team was based in ...

. In April 2013, NEC became the umbrella sponsor for

PGA Tour Latinoamérica PGA Tour Latinoamérica is a third level professional golf tour formed in 2012 and operated by the PGA Tour. It was formed in concert with the now defunct Tour de las Américas. Executives from the Tour de las Américas became employees of the new ...

, a third-tier men's professional golf tour.

Sports teams

These started as

works team A works team (sometimes factory team, company team) is a sports team that is financed and run by a manufacturer or other business. Sometimes, works teams contain or are entirely made up of employees of the supporting company. Association footb ...

s, but over the years came to include professional players: *

NEC Red Rockets is a women's volleyball team based in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan. It plays in V.League 1. The owner of the team is NEC. The club was founded in April 1978 as NEC's corporate team, participating the same year in the 10th V.Challenge League to ...

(women's volleyball) *

NEC Green Rockets NEC Green Rockets Tokatsu (formerly NEC Green Rockets) is a Japanese rugby union team in the Japan Rugby League One. The team's captain iRyota Asano The previous captain was Takuro Miuchi, who was also the captain of the Japan national rugby unio ...

(men's

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

) NEC also used to own

Montedio Yamagata is Japanese professional association football club based in Tendo, Yamagata. The club plays in J2 League. Montedio is a coined word combining the Italian word for "mountain" (Monte) and the word for "God" (Dio). History The club based in T ...

of the

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

J. League The , officially is Japan's professional football league including the first division J1 League, second division J2 League and third division J3 League of the Japanese association football league system. J1 League is one of the most succe ...

, but just sponsors them along with other local companies. The following team is defunct. *

NEC Blue Rockets is a men's volleyball team based in Fuchu city, Tokyo, Japan. It plays in V.Premier League. The owner of the club is NEC. History The club was founded in 1938. Honours ; Japan Volleyball League/V.League/V.Premier League *Champion (4): 1991 ...