Hitachi was founded in 1910 by Namihei Odaira. The name "Hitachi" literally means "sunrise", reflecting the founding philosophy of contributing to people and society through technology. This philosophy has helped Hitachi become one of the world's largest corporations with an annual net sales of more than $67.8 billion (¥8,416 billion) (in fiscal 2000), a range of over 20,000 products and more than 300,000 employees worldwide.
The semiconductor operations of Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric were transferred to Renesas Technology Corporation on April 1st 2003.