Producer
ATL (Amperex Technology Limited)
Amperex Technology Limited (ATL; headquartered Dongguan, Guangdong, China) is the world's largest manufacturer of LCO (lithium cobalt oxide) battery cells for consumer electronics, holding approximately 35-40% of the global smartphone and tablet cell market. ATL was founded in 1999 in Hong Kong and relocated primary operations to Dongguan. The company was acquired by TDK Corporation (Japan; TYO: 6762) in 2005 for approximately ¥10.5B — making a Chinese battery maker a wholly-owned subsidiary of a Japanese electronics conglomerate. ATL is the primary cell supplier for Apple iPhone (jointly with Samsung SDI), Google Pixel, Huawei smartphones, and virtually all major Android OEM devices. ATL's primary LCO cell manufacturing campus is in Dongguan, Guangdong; it also operates a major facility in Ningde, Fujian (the same city whose name gives CATL — Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited — its identity, though ATL and CATL are entirely separate companies). ATL is privately held within TDK and does not publish standalone financials; revenue is estimated at $5-7B+ annually.
2
Inputs supplied
2
Goods downstream
2
Facilities
0
Stories
What they make
2 inputs ATL (Amperex Technology Limited) supplies
Click an input to see every good that depends on it, every country that produces it, and every other company in the supply chain.
Where it shows up
Goods downstream
Essential goods that depend on something ATL (Amperex Technology Limited) makes, pick one to see the full supply chain.
Where they make it
2 facilities
ATL Dongguan LCO Cell Manufacturing Campus (Guangdong) →
CNGuangdong · manufacturing
ATL's primary LCO battery cell manufacturing campus in Dongguan, Guangdong Province, China. Dongguan is the world's most concentrated single location for consumer electronics battery production — multiple ATL facilities occupy the Dongguan campus, employing tens of thousands of workers. The campus produces LCO pouch cells primarily for iPhone (Apple), Huawei, and other smartphone OEMs. Exact capacity is not publicly disclosed. A significant majority of global smartphone LCO cells originate within this one Chinese city. Source: https://www.atlbattery.com/en/about.html
ATL Ningde LCO Cell Factory (Fujian) →
CNFujian · manufacturing
ATL's secondary major LCO manufacturing facility in Ningde, Fujian Province — the same city from which CATL takes its name (though ATL and CATL are entirely distinct companies). ATL's Ningde plant produces LCO cells for consumer electronics OEMs and provides geographic redundancy to the Dongguan campus. The co-location of ATL and CATL in Ningde reflects Ningde city's position as China's primary lithium battery manufacturing hub. Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-battery-atl
What else they do
Business segments
The company's full revenue map, where this supply-chain role fits within their broader business.
Smartphone & Tablet LCO Cells
65%Laptop & Wearable Batteries
20%IoT & Specialty Cells
10%Emerging Applications
5%
Intelligence
What's known
Sourced claims about this company's role in supply chains, chokepoints, concentration, incidents, dual-use connections.
Concentration2005
ATL (Amperex Technology Limited) is simultaneously the world's largest consumer electronics battery cell maker AND a wholly-owned subsidiary of TDK Corporation — a Japanese company headquartered in Tokyo that most people associate with cassette tapes and magnetic recording materials. TDK acquired ATL in 2005 for approximately ¥10.5B when ATL was still a small Dongguan battery startup. By 2024, that acquisition has grown into a business estimated at $5-7B+ in annual revenue — the primary cell supplier for the iPhone, one of the world's most valuable consumer products. TDK's ATL acquisition is one of the most asymmetric technology M&A transactions in electronics history: a Japanese analog components maker bought a small Chinese battery startup and now controls approximately 40% of smartphone battery cell supply globally. Apple's iPhones — sold at $1,000-$1,600 each — contain battery cells from a Chinese factory owned by a Japanese company that most people have never heard of as a battery maker.
TDK Corporation ↗Origin2023
ATL was founded in 1999 by Robin Zeng Yuqun in Hong Kong, based on lithium polymer battery technology licensed from Bell Labs. Zeng focused ATL on high-energy-density cells for consumer electronics, becoming Apple's primary iPhone battery supplier. TDK Corporation (Japan) acquired ATL in 2005, integrating it into TDK's energy devices division. The pivotal consequence of TDK's acquisition was that Zeng departed ATL to co-found CATL (Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited) in 2011, applying the same prismatic cell expertise from ATL to EV batteries at scale — making ATL the origin point of both the world's largest consumer electronics battery maker AND the world's largest EV battery company.
Amperex Technology Limited ↗Did you know2024
ATL is tracked as a consumer electronics battery company (smartphone, laptop), but the same LCO cell chemistry is used in Class III medical devices — specifically implantable cardiac defibrillators, neurostimulators, and cochlear implants — where the combination of high energy density and long shelf life matches LCO's characteristics. ATL's parent TDK is also one of the world's largest producers of magnetic components (inductors, ferrite materials) used in medical devices and industrial electronics. The smartphone battery company through TDK ownership is also embedded in the medical device supply chain and the industrial electronics supply chain — three separate regulatory environments (consumer/CE marking, FDA/medical device, industrial) served by the same Japanese parent company.
TDK Corporation ↗