DRIVEN BASE

DENSO to Increase Its shareholding in Renesas Electronics Corporation

Mar. 9, 2018

KARIYA (Japan) ― DENSO Corporation today announced that it has decided to increase its shareholding in Renesas Electronics Corporation to accelerate the development of various in-vehicle systems including automated driving systems that are becoming more advanced, complicated, and larger in scale than ever before. Renesas has cutting-edge technologies for semiconductors that serve as the key devices in such systems.

Recently, in order to meet the needs of complicated vehicle control, the functionality of in-vehicle microcontrollers has been increasing. This is causing their design and manufacturing processes to be more difficult. Manufacturers are expected to accelerate the development of new semiconductors for diversely advanced systems for automated driving, electrification, IoT, and connected driving through a combination of communication and AI-related technologies.

By taking full advantage of its knowledge of in-vehicle products acquired through many years of operation, and in order to develop competitive vehicle control systems in new fields such as automated driving, DENSO considers it essential to further enhance collaboration with semiconductor manufacturers that have profound experience and expertise.

Renesas is a top supplier of in-vehicle microcontroller and has Renesas autonomy™ to offer complicated and advanced technologies as an open platform. Its basic growth strategy is to offer comprehensive solutions from cloud services that contribute to automated driving, sensing, and vehicle control. DENSO will continue the joint development with Renesas and accelerate the development of technologies to create competitive in-vehicle systems.

DENSO will increase its shareholding in Renesas from 0.5% to 5%.

DENSO will strengthen and expedite the development of technologies focusing on safety for automated driving and connected vehicles, and on the environment through electrification in order to offer new value to mobility of the future.

Renesas autonomy is a trademark of Renesas Electronics Corporation.

About DENSO Corporation

DENSO Corp., headquartered in Kariya, Aichi prefecture, Japan, is a leading global automotive supplier of advanced technology, systems and components in the areas of thermal, powertrain control, electronics and information and safety. Its customers include all the world's major carmakers. Worldwide, the company has more than 200 subsidiaries and affiliates in 38 countries and regions (including Japan) and employs more than 150,000 people. Consolidated global sales for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2017, totaled US$40.4 billion. Last fiscal year, DENSO spent 9.0 percent of its global consolidated sales on research and development. DENSO common stock is traded on the Tokyo and Nagoya stock exchanges. For more information, go to www.denso.com, or visit our media website at www.denso.com/global/en/news/media-center/