Espressif Systems (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (Espressif; ) is a

publicly listed A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (li ...

Chinese

semiconductor A semiconductor is a material with electrical conductivity between that of a conductor and an insulator. Its conductivity can be modified by adding impurities (" doping") to its crystal structure. When two regions with different doping level ...

company headquartered in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

. It focuses on developing and selling wireless microcontroller unit communication chips and modules that are used in

internet of things Internet of things (IoT) describes devices with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other communication networks. The IoT encompasse ...

(IoT).

History

In 2008, Espressif was founded in China by

Singaporean Singaporeans are the citizens and nationals of the sovereign island city-state of Singapore. Singapore is home to a people of a variety of ethno-racial-religious origins, with the city-state itself being a multi-racial, multi-cultural, m ...

national, Teo Swee Ann. Teo who graduated from

National University of Singapore The National University of Singapore (NUS) is a national university, national Public university, public research university in Singapore. It was officially established in 1980 by the merging of the University of Singapore and Nanyang University ...

with degrees in

electrical engineering Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems that use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...

had worked for Montage Technology as an engineering director. Espressif initially started as one-man consulting firm which later expanded. However due to small quantity of chips commissioned by Espressif,

foundries A foundry is a factory that produces metal castings. Metals are cast into shapes by melting them into a liquid, pouring the metal into a mold, and removing the mold material after the metal has solidified as it cools. The most common metals pr ...

tended to reject it. However

TSMC Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC or Taiwan Semiconductor) is a Taiwanese multinational semiconductor contract manufacturing and design company. It is one of the world's most valuable semiconductor companies, the world' ...

who had heard of Teo's work at Montage Technology gave Espressif a chance and became its supplier. On 22 July 2019, Espressif had its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

and became a listed company on the

Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market The Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market, officially known as the Shanghai Stock Exchange Science and Technology Innovation Board, is a Chinese science and technology focused equities market established on July 22, 2019. STAR has been touted as ...

. The offering raised 1.2 billion yuan. In March 2022, it was reported that Espressif was moving exclusively to the

RISC-V RISC-V (pronounced "risk-five") is an open standard instruction set architecture (ISA) based on established reduced instruction set computer (RISC) principles. The project commenced in 2010 at the University of California, Berkeley. It transfer ...

open source Open source is source code that is made freely available for possible modification and redistribution. Products include permission to use and view the source code, design documents, or content of the product. The open source model is a decentrali ...

instruction set architecture In computer science, an instruction set architecture (ISA) is an abstract model that generally defines how software controls the CPU in a computer or a family of computers. A device or program that executes instructions described by that ISA, ...

. As of September 2023, Espressif has shipped over 1 billion IoT chips and is the fifth largest company in the Wi-Fi microcontrollers business.

Business operations

Since establishment, Espressif has remained profitable. Rather than buying existing solutions which is a common practice in the chip industry, Espressif performs its own engineering and has a very cost effective method of designing chips. Managers and directors are expected to do coding in addition to their managerial duties. Espressif adopts a sales model that is mainly direct sales and supplemented by distribution.

Products

Espressif has established itself in providing

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for Wireless LAN, local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by ...

and

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is li ...

-integrated devices and solutions. Initially focusing on Wi-Fi microcontrollers, the company has expanded into the fields

artificial intelligence of things The Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT) is the combination of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies with the Internet of things (IoT) infrastructure to achieve more efficient IoT operations, improve human-machine interactions and enhance d ...

and

system on a chip A system on a chip (SoC) is an integrated circuit that combines most or all key components of a computer or Electronics, electronic system onto a single microchip. Typically, an SoC includes a central processing unit (CPU) with computer memory, ...

. Two of Espressif most well known semiconductor products are the

ESP8266 The ESP8266 is a low-cost Wi-Fi microcontroller, with built-in TCP/IP stack, TCP/IP networking software, and microcontroller capability, produced by Espressif Systems in Shanghai, China. The chip was popularized in the English-speaking maker c ...

and its successor

ESP32 ESP32 is a family of low-cost, energy-efficient microcontrollers that integrate both Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities. These chips feature a variety of processing options, including the Tensilica Xtensa LX6 microprocessor available in both dual-c ...

. They are used in products such as coffee machines and light bulbs, as well as providers of

smart city A smart city is an urban area that uses digital technology to collect data and operate services. Data is collected from citizens, devices, buildings, or cameras. Applications include traffic and transportation systems, power plants, utilities ...

and automation solutions. They are also used by DIY tech hobbyists

References

{{Authority control 2008 establishments in China 2019 initial public offerings Companies based in Shanghai Companies listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange Electronics companies established in 2008 Fabless semiconductor companies Semiconductor companies of China RISC-V

History

Business operations

Products

See also

References