The Creation of STMicroelectronics

Two semiconductor companies. Both alike in dignity.

In fair Europe, where we set our scene.

From ancient roots break to new silicon.

In 1987, Italy's SGS Microelettronica and France's Thomson Semiconducteurs decided to join forces. It was a historic alliance that created a European semiconductor giant - a globally competitive one at that.

The stories of these two star-cross'd silicon lovers are fascinating. In today's video, we talk about the merger that created SGS-Thomson, now STMicroelectronics.

Oh, and I do want to sincerely apologize for totally mangling these European pronunciations. Feel free to make fun of me in the comments.

An Urgent Need

Let us start in Italy. Because the history of SGS is far simpler. And also because I like pasta.

SGS begins with the iconic Italian industrialist Adriano Olivetti. Adriano was the son of the founder of an iconic Italian typewriter company. A visionary leader with immense drive and energy, he pushed his company into the computer space in the mid-1950s.

Their first prototype - the Elea 9001 - had been built with vacuum tubes. It worked fine, but Adriano and the brilliant Chinese-Italian leading his computer team Dr. Mario Tchou decided to redesign and rebuild the computer using solid-state transistors.

The resulting success convinced Olivetti and Tchou that transistors were the future. But Adriano did not want to import these critical items from the United States - where they were first invented - or West Germany or the Netherlands. They wanted to make them here in Italy.

However, the Olivetti Company had its hands full with the work of producing computers. Fundamentally, they saw themselves as a mechanical company ill-equipped to handle the challenges of solid-state device mass-manufacture.

While debating the merits of starting a full research laboratory themselves, the two hear about another Italian company working on transistors.

Starting SGS

Born in 1906, Virgilio Floriani grew up believing in the value of technology and innovation.

During the war, he worked as a designer and engineer for a military radio factory. After the war ended, he founded the Italian telecommunications company Telettra in 1946. The name is an amalgamation of "Telephony, Electronics, Radio".

Telettra introduced a series of new technologies to post-war Italy. So when Floriani realized that nobody else in the European telephone industry thought these transistor things were important, he saw a chance to seize the high ground.

So Telettra bought a license from Bell, ...