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On Monday evening, chip manufacturer NXP won the Netherlands’ most prestigious entrepreneurship prize, the Koning Willem I Award. This biennial prize was presented by her majesty Queen Máxima and Klaas Knot, director of De Nederlandsche Bank. 

Daring strategy

The award recognizes courageous, resilient and sustainable entrepreneurship. According to the jury, NXP ‘has demonstrated outstanding entrepreneurship with a daring strategy’. By doing this, it is making a a contribution to the lives of people and society in areas where it definitely makes a difference.

Semiconductor manufacturer NXP is headquartered in the Dutch city of Eindhoven and has a large factory in Nijmegen. NXP originally sprang from Philips and is now one of the largest chipmakers in the world. Annual sales exceeded US$11 billion last year. Demand for chips is enormous and the number of uses for them continues to grow. 

Keep on innovating

Approximately 17 percent of NXP’s revenue is spent on Research & Development. Naturally, this amounts to a huge slice of that US$11 billion. According to the CEO of NXP, Jean Schreurs, this is crucial to be able to keep on innovating. Both in the further development of existing products and the development of new applications.

Winners

The Koning Willem I Award in the SME category went to the Maan Group from Raalte, an R&D-driven company with its origins in adhesive and surface technology. The Koning Willem I Plaque for Sustainable Entrepreneurship went to the sustainable jeans company MUD Jeans from Amsterdam.