Philips

Philips

Philips was founded in 1891 in Eindhoven, Netherlands, by Gerard Philips and his father Frederik as a lighting manufacturer. Over 130 years, it transformed into a focused health technology company, shedding consumer lighting and other divisions. Today, CEO Roy Jakobs oversees a global workforce of roughly 69,700 people. The company's strategy targets the full health continuum from healthy living to home care. Its portfolio spans diagnostic imaging (CT, MRI, ultrasound), image-guided therapy, patient monitoring, and clinical informatics. In 2024, R&D spending reached ~9% of sales, with about half of that directed at software and data science (per the firm, 2024). Philips has been the top MedTech patent filer at the European Patent Office in 2025. Key recent regulatory wins include FDA 510(k) clearance for the Rembra CT platform (April 2026) and Verida, the first AI-powered detector-based spectral CT (April 2026). Philips employs about 69,700 people across over 100 countries. Its US operations include offices in Long Beach, California; York, Pennsylvania; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The company maintains a Supervisory Board separate from its Board of Management and Executive Committee. In April 2026, the Medical Device Innovation Consortium (MDIC) appointed Philips Chief Medical Officer Carla Goulart Peron as a board member. A structural differentiator is Philips's regulatory and IP depth: it holds over 53,000 patent rights and has been named a Clarivate Top 100 Global Innovator for 13 consecutive years. Its diverse health-technology portfolio — spanning imaging, monitoring, and AI-driven therapy tools — creates cross-platform moats that pure-play medical device firms lack.