Nidec is a Japanese company founded on July 23, 1973 and headquartered in Kyoto that manufactures electric motors; until April 2023 it traded as Nippon Densan Corporation. Nidec's products appear in hard-disk drives, home appliances, automobiles and industrial equipment; according to Wikipedia, the company is the global market leader for spindle motors that power hard-disk drives.
Component and function
For robotics and automation, Nidec supplies motors, servo drives and drive technology. Servo motors provide precise, dynamically controlled motion and are a core component in robot axes, machine tools and automated systems. Through numerous acquisitions, Nidec has broadly diversified its drive portfolio. Per Wikipedia, automotive products most recently accounted for about 22 percent of group revenue and hard-disk-drive motors for about 16 percent; the rest spans home-appliance, industrial and precision motors plus electronic and optical components.
Role in the value chain
As a supplier of motors and drives, Nidec is an important building block of automated systems. The company delivers the "muscles" of many machines without marketing complete robots itself.
Key figures
For fiscal year 2017, Wikipedia cites consolidated revenue of roughly US$11.15 billion (about ¥1,199.3 billion); for fiscal year 2024 (ended March 31, 2025), Nidec reports a much larger, record consolidated revenue of roughly ¥2,607.1 billion, operating profit of ¥237.8 billion (a 9.1 percent margin) and net income of ¥164.2 billion, with 104,285 employees. The founder and long-time leader is Shigenobu Nagamori. The shares trade on the Tokyo Stock Exchange (code 6594) and on the NYSE, and are a TOPIX 100 constituent.
From hard-disk motor to a broad drive group
Nidec grew large with small precision motors for hard-disk drives and has expanded through numerous acquisitions into drives for vehicles, home appliances, industrial equipment and automation — a diversification that makes it a broadly positioned drive-technology supplier.
Servo technology for automation
As a supplier, Nidec depends on demand from its customer industries, each following its own cycles — such as the automotive or industrial economy. Long-term trends such as electrification, energy efficiency and automation support demand for electric drives, while competition and raw-material costs influence the business.
E-Axle: powering electric mobility
With its E-Axle traction motor system — a combination of motor, inverter and reducer — Nidec also positions itself as a drive supplier for electric vehicles. By April 2023 the company had produced 700,000 E-Axle units, fitted in 15 vehicle models with a focus on China; by 2030 Nidec targets a global market share of 40 to 45 percent. The second-generation motor, introduced in October 2022, delivers up to 135 kW at 2,400 Nm of torque and weighs 57 kilograms.
Accounting scandal and internal controls
In September 2025, Nidec set up an independent third-party committee to investigate suspected inappropriate accounting practices across the group; the Tokyo Stock Exchange subsequently designated the stock for special monitoring. The final report, delivered in April 2026, documented, per media reports, more than 1,000 instances of improper accounting across numerous group locations, including delayed impairments on inventory and misrecorded subsidies. Nidec expects net assets to decrease by roughly ¥160.7 billion and anticipates impairments of up to roughly ¥250 billion (about $1.6 billion), mainly in the automotive business; no dividend will be paid for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026.
This profile is a neutral description and is not investment advice.