Philips helped create the two most important companies in the chip world today — TSMC and ASML — then sold out of both, a decision that looks costly now that AI has made them worth trillions.

• Philips started as a light bulb maker in 1891 and grew into one of Europe's biggest chip companies by the 1990s.
• It partnered with Taiwan's ITRI in 1986, and that deal produced TSMC a year later; Philips became the largest foreign shareholder after Taiwan's government.
• It also co-founded ASML in 1984, a joint venture that reportedly started in a leaky wooden shed near the Philips offices in Eindhoven.
• Falling prices and tough competition from Korean and Chinese rivals pushed Philips to sell its chip, TV, and audio businesses and bet on medical technology instead.
• It exited ASML entirely by the mid-2000s and cashed out its TSMC stake between 2005 and 2008, using the billions for buybacks, medical acquisitions, and paying down debt.

Outlook: Philips is now a focused medical-tech company, while TSMC and ASML sit at the center of the AI boom it walked away from.