Producer
Nidec Corporation
World's largest manufacturer of small precision electric motors (TSE: 6594, HQ Kyoto); founded 1973 by Shigenobu Nagamori. Dominates hard disk drive (HDD) spindle motors (nearly 100% global market share for decades) and is aggressively expanding into BLDC motors for home appliances and EV traction motors. Annual production exceeds 1 billion motor units across all categories. Key BLDC divisions: Nidec Motor Corporation (US, household appliances), Nidec Global Appliance (Brazil, formerly Embraco). The same Nidec that makes the spindle motor in every hard drive also makes the BLDC motor in washing machines and is building the next generation of EV traction motors.
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Small Precision Motors (HDD & Electronics)
30%Appliance & BLDC Motors
30%Industrial & Commercial Motors
20%EV Traction & Automotive
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Did you know2023
Nidec Corporation (Kyoto) is simultaneously the world's largest manufacturer of hard disk drive (HDD) spindle motors (approaching 100% global market share for decades), a major BLDC motor supplier for home appliances, and is aggressively pivoting to EV traction motors. Nidec produces over 1 billion motor units annually across these three entirely separate industries — digital storage, home appliances, and electric vehicles — all from variants of the same brushless DC motor technology. Its founder Shigenobu Nagamori, known for relentless acquisition strategies, has bought dozens of motor companies globally including Emerson's industrial motor division and Embraco (refrigerator compressor motors, formerly Brazilian). The same Kyoto company that makes the spindle motor keeping your hard drive spinning is building the traction motors for next-generation electric vehicles.
Nidec Corporation ↗Origin2023
Nidec Corporation was founded in 1973 in Kyoto by Shigenobu Nagamori with 23,000 yen of capital -- approximately $75 at the time -- and three part-time employees working from a 165 m2 factory. Nagamori had been fired from his previous employer and started Nidec specifically to make precision small motors. The HDD spindle motor was Nidec's breakthrough product: in 1979, Nidec developed the world's first brushless DC spindle motor for Winchester hard disk drives, which IBM was introducing at the time. By 1990, Nidec had captured the dominant global market share in HDD spindle motors -- a position it has maintained for 35 years at near-100% share. From 1973 to 2024, Nagamori's acquisition-driven growth strategy (over 70 company acquisitions) built Nidec into a 1-billion-unit-per-year motor company with operations across HDD, appliances, industrial automation, and increasingly EV traction -- all from a Kyoto starting point of 3 part-time workers in a 165 m2 shed.
Nidec Corporation ↗