Winbond buys Infineon's NOR flash unit for $1.1B, reviving Spansion brand
What's the deal? Taiwan's Winbond ElectronicsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has agreed to acquire Infineon Technologies' NOR flash memory and FRAM businesses for $1.1 billion in cash. Winbond will run the unit as a standalone entity and rename it "SpansionDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →," reviving a once-prominent name in NOR flash. The companies signed a final agreement on September 16, 2026, with completion expected in the second half of 2027, pending regulatory approvals.
What each side gets: The businesses being sold serve automotive, industrial, and infrastructure markets and are based in San Jose, California, with more than 30 years in memory. Winbond, which buys 100% of the shares from an Infineon subsidiary, says the deal expands its global research and development, supply capacity, and customer service. It will take on staff from more than 10 countries, plus supply-chain partners.
Why the Spansion name? Spansion was formed from the flash memory businesses of AMD and FujitsuDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and became a leading NOR flash maker. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2009, emerged in 2010, then merged with Cypress SemiconductorDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → in 2015, retiring the brand. Infineon acquired Cypress in 2020, bringing the Spansion-rooted NOR flash business under its wing.
What they're saying: "I am pleased to revive the 'Spansion' company name and trademark," said Arthur Yu-Cheng Chiao, Winbond's chief executive officer (translated from Japanese). "Spansion is an industry pioneer that has produced many innovations and technical breakthroughs. It is an honour to carry on this name."
Infineon's rationale: The company said the sale lets it focus its portfolio and capital on core growth areas. "This transaction allows Infineon to concentrate even more on the growth drivers at the heart of our portfolio and capital allocation," said Peter Schiefer, president of Infineon's automotive division (translated from Japanese).
Infineon will keep specialty memory products, including SRAM, nvSRAM, the pSRAM-based HYPERRAM, and radiation-hardened SONOS memory, aimed at automotive, industrial, infrastructure, aerospace, and defence uses.
The signal: The deal reshuffles the specialised NOR flash market as a broad-line chipmaker sheds a mature business to a focused memory maker. For Winbond, taking on both the technology and the storied Spansion brand is a bet that scale and heritage can strengthen its position in automotive and industrial memory.
Read more: eetimes.itmedia.co.jp
Image credit: IBM Research
