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NEC spun off its semiconductor operations as NEC Electronics on November 1, 2002. NEC Electronics was subsequently listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2003.
Renesas Technology was formed in April 2003 by Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric, combining their non-DRAM semiconductor businesses. The company was owned 55% by Hitachi and 45% by Mitsubishi Electric. The name "Renesas" was derived from "Renaissance Semiconductor for Advanced Solutions". The companies had previously separated their DRAM operations into Elpida Memory, which filed for bankruptcy in 2012 and was subsequently acquired by Micron Technology.
In September 2009, NEC Electronics and Renesas Technology agreed to merge. The transaction took effect on April 1, 2010 as an absorption-type merger in which NEC Electronics was the surviving company and Renesas Technology ceased to exist as a separate corporation. NEC Electronics changed its name to Renesas Electronics Corporation and began operations under that name on the same day.
In December 2010, Renesas Mobile Corporation was formed by integrating Renesas's mobile business with wireless-modem assets acquired from Nokia. Renesas later exited the mobile sector, transferring LTE assets to Broadcom in 2013 and absorbing Renesas Mobile in 2014.
The 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami and flooding in Thailand severely affected Renesas's operations and semiconductor supply chains. A major restructuring followed, involving workforce reductions, the sale and consolidation of domestic production facilities, and a government-led capital injection. Following a third-party share allotment in September 2013, the state-backed Innovation Network Corporation of Japan held 69.15% of Renesas's shares.
For the year ended March 2014, Renesas recorded operating income of ¥67.6 billion, compared with an operating loss of ¥23.2 billion in the previous year. Its net loss narrowed from ¥167.6 billion to ¥5.3 billion.
From 2016 onward, Renesas carried out a series of acquisitions that broadened its business beyond its traditional MCU base. It acquired U.S. analog semiconductor company Intersil in 2017. In 2019, it acquired Integrated Device Technology (IDT) in a transaction valued at approximately $6.7 billion.
Hidetoshi Shibata, who had served as chief financial officer, became president and CEO on July 1, 2019.
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In March 2021, a fire at the Naka Factory temporarily disrupted production during a period of global automotive semiconductor shortages. Production resumed in stages from April.
In 2021, Renesas purchased Dialog Semiconductor for approximately $6 billion, followed by acquisitions including Celeno Communications, Reality AI, and Steradian Semiconductors.
In December 2022, Renesas received the Outstanding Asia-Pacific Semiconductor Company Award from the Global Semiconductor Alliance. In April 2023, the company was added to the Nikkei 225 index.
INCJ, which had begun reducing its stake in 2017, sold its remaining Renesas shares in November 2023. Its ownership ratio thereby fell from 69.15% following the 2013 investment to 0%.
Renesas continued its expansion in 2023 and 2024. It acquired Panthronics, gallium nitride semiconductor maker Transphorm, and electronic-design software company Altium for approximately $5.9 billion.
In January 2025, Renesas announced plans to reduce its global workforce by less than 5%, or fewer than 1,000 positions, amid weak semiconductor demand. It also postponed regular salary increases scheduled for that spring.
Renesas had entered into a ten-year silicon carbide (SiC) wafer supply agreement with Wolfspeed in 2023 and provided a $2 billion deposit. In 2025, Renesas discontinued development of its own SiC power semiconductors and identified GaN as one of the technologies in which it would concentrate investment. Wolfspeed entered Chapter 11 proceedings in June 2025 under a restructuring agreement involving Renesas and other creditors. Renesas ultimately recorded a ¥236.6 billion loss in its 2025 accounts related to the conversion of its Wolfspeed deposit into other financial assets.
In February 2026, Renesas agreed to transfer its timing business, which had originated with the 2019 acquisition of IDT, to U.S. timing-device manufacturer SiTime. Renesas valued the transaction at approximately $3.0 billion, consisting of $1.5 billion in cash and approximately 4.13 million SiTime shares, with the stock consideration subject to a price collar. The transfer was completed on July 1, 2026. Renesas expected to record a gain of approximately ¥443.3 billion from the transfer in its financial statements for the nine months ending September 2026. Renesas and SiTime also agreed to explore integrating SiTime's MEMS resonators with Renesas MCUs and SoCs.
From Wikipedia’s article on Renesas Electronics, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.6