Texas Instruments (TI) is one of the world's largest semiconductor companies, headquartered in Dallas, TX since 1951. The company designs and manufactures analog chips and embedded processors for industrial, automotive, and IoT applications. Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit at TI in 1958.
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Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) is an American semiconductor company headquartered in Dallas, Texas since its founding in 1951. TI is one of the world's ten largest semiconductor companies by revenue, generating approximately $17.5 billion annually.
TI's core business is analog semiconductors — chips that process real-world signals like temperature, pressure, sound, and light — and embedded processors for microcontrollers and digital signal processing. These products are the invisible backbone of industrial equipment, automotive systems, medical devices, and consumer electronics globally.
The company owns one of the most significant legacies in the history of technology: in 1958, TI engineer Jack Kilby invented the integrated circuit — the foundational invention of all modern electronics. Kilby was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000 for this achievement, which was carried out in TI's Dallas laboratory.
TI's product portfolio spans two primary categories: analog semiconductors (65% of revenue) and embedded processors (18% of revenue), with the remainder in other components and intellectual property licensing.
TI holds the world's largest analog semiconductor portfolio with 80,000+ products. Key categories: power management ICs (regulators, converters), data converters (ADCs, DACs), amplifiers, and interface circuits. These chips appear in virtually every electronic device manufactured.
Sitara (ARM-based application processors), C2000 (real-time microcontrollers for motor control and power conversion), MSP430 (ultra-low-power MCUs for battery-operated IoT), and OMAP (multimedia processors).
Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Z-Wave, Sub-1GHz, and Thread connectivity chips for IoT devices. A primary supplier to the smart home, smart building, and industrial IoT markets.
Digital Light Processing — micromirror chips powering digital projectors, digital cinema, 3D printing, and automotive heads-up displays. TI's DLP is the dominant chip in commercial cinema projection.
The TI-84 Plus series has been the standard graphing calculator in US education since the 1990s. Required on the SAT, ACT, and AP exams. An unlikely but enduring consumer business for a B2B chip company.
Texas Instruments has been headquartered in Dallas, Texas since its founding in 1951 — making it one of the oldest continuously operating technology companies in the United States, and the anchor of Dallas's technology industry for seven decades.
TI is investing heavily in Texas manufacturing. In 2021, the company announced a $30B+ investment to build four new 300mm wafer fabrication plants in Sherman, Texas (75 miles north of Dallas). This is the largest manufacturing investment in Texas history and one of the largest semiconductor manufacturing investments in the United States.
TI employs thousands of engineers and manufacturing workers across its Dallas headquarters, a major R&D campus in Dallas, and the expanding Sherman, TX fabrication complex. The company consistently ranks among the largest private employers in North Texas.
Sherman fab investment: TI's $30B+ Sherman, TX semiconductor fabs (CHIPS Act supported) will be among the most advanced chip manufacturing facilities in the United States when operational, supplying analog and embedded chips for automotive and industrial customers.
Geophysics Service Incorporated (GSI) founded in Newark, NJ. The company provides geophysical petroleum exploration services using seismic technology.
GSI's electronics division begins manufacturing equipment for the U.S. Navy — building the company's electronics engineering capabilities.
GSI's electronics division is incorporated as Texas Instruments Incorporated in Dallas, TX. The company becomes publicly traded.
TI produces the first commercial silicon transistor, enabling the transition from vacuum tubes to solid-state electronics.
Jack Kilby invents the integrated circuit (IC) at TI's Dallas lab — placing multiple transistors on a single piece of semiconductor material. This invention forms the foundation of all modern electronics. Kilby receives the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2000.
TI engineers produce the first handheld electronic calculator — the Cal Tech prototype, which eventually became the basis of the commercial calculator market.
Becomes a major DSP (digital signal processing) chip supplier for telecommunications, consumer electronics, and defense applications.
Sells defense electronics and materials/controls businesses. Refocuses entirely on semiconductors — particularly analog chips and embedded processors.
Acquires National Semiconductor for $6.5B — dramatically expanding TI's analog semiconductor portfolio and customer base.
Announces $30B+ investment in new 300mm wafer fabs in Sherman, TX — the largest manufacturing investment in Texas history.
🏆 The integrated circuit, invented at Texas Instruments in 1958, is widely considered the most important invention of the 20th century and the foundation of the entire modern technology industry.
Jack Kilby joined Texas Instruments as an electrical engineer in 1958. While most colleagues were on vacation, Kilby — too new to have earned vacation time — stayed in the lab and developed the concept of the integrated circuit: placing multiple transistors, resistors, and capacitors on a single piece of germanium semiconductor.
On September 12, 1958, Kilby demonstrated the first working integrated circuit — a device roughly the size of a pencil eraser. This replaced the need to solder together separate discrete components, enabling the miniaturization of electronics that made computers, smartphones, and all digital devices possible.
Robert Noyce at Fairchild Semiconductor independently invented a more practical silicon-based IC shortly after. Both are credited as co-inventors of the integrated circuit. Kilby received the 2000 Nobel Prize in Physics — Noyce had died in 1990.
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