onsemi: A New Name and a Sharper Focus

September 15, 2021

Blog

On Semiconductor is now known as onsemi. That’s not a big deal, as that’s what everyone called the company anyway. What is a big deal is that there’s a new sheriff in town. Hassane El-Khoury took over as President and CEO last December and is in the process of putting his imprint on the company.

The last time I spoke in depth with El-Khoury, he was the President and CEO of Silicon Valley-based Cypress Semiconductor (since acquired by Infineon). That appeared to me to be the perfect fit—the slick, fast-paced supplier of hip microcontrollers and wireless transceivers seemed very well suited to his style. Now, El-Khoury leads a 60-year-old company whose roots are in things like analog and power.

But make no mistake, this is a company that is experiencing somewhat of a rebirth, led by its new leader. First, the name change. Second, a commitment to covering intelligent power and sensing technologies. Third, a team that is drinking the Kool-Aid, a team that appears to be “all in” with the philosophies of its new president.

Some of the principles that El-Khoury is instilling are to not try to be all things to all people and focus on executing what the company does best with “clarity and focus.” This seems obvious, but it’s not always the case when companies grow to the size of onsemi, which is north of $5 billion and more than 33,000 employees globally.

The markets onsemi plans to compete in include automotive, industrial, 5G and Cloud power, IoT, medical/healthcare, and aerospace/defense. Of those, vehicle electrification likely has the biggest upside for the company, particularly in the areas of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS) and autonomous drive. Silicon Carbide is one of the technologies onsemi is using to drive these products. Beyond that, powering the Cloud behind the rising number of datacenters is an area with lots of potential for intelligent power products.

While the jury is still out on onsemi, the company appears to be on the right path. The latest round of product announcements show that it is on target with its mission. While it’s not that hard to veer off course, even slightly, I’m guessing that’s not going to be the case here.