Nikon Corporation

Nikon Corporation is a Japanese manufacturer of optical and precision equipment headquartered in Tokyo, founded in 1917 through the merger of three optical manufacturers under the original name Nippon Kogaku, adopting the Nikon brand for its cameras and eventually renaming the whole corporation Nikon Corporation in 1988. The company is best known internationally for its Nikon-branded still and video cameras and interchangeable lenses, a business it built after introducing its first Nikon-branded camera in 1948, but it also manufactures semiconductor and flat-panel-display lithography systems, microscopes, ophthalmic imaging equipment, industrial measurement and inspection equipment, and metal additive-manufacturing systems. Nikon's lithography equipment business places it among a small number of companies worldwide capable of building the precision machines used to manufacture semiconductor chips.