In an August 20, 2021 EE Times interview, then-onsemi president and CEO Hassane El-Khoury described the company’s plan as “a transformation, not a turnaround.” His version of focus was not abandoning semiconductors or rebuilding the workforce from scratch. It was concentrating investment, manufacturing capacity and execution on automotive and industrial markets, while using related capabilities in cloud and 5G as adjacent opportunities.
What the 2021 interview was about
Episode 149 of the EE Times podcast, “CEO Interview: Hassane El-Khoury is Getting Onsemi Focused,” runs for about 32 minutes and was published on August 20, 2021. Interviewer Brian Santo asked El-Khoury how onsemi (then commonly styled ON Semiconductor) could compete when semiconductor companies were pursuing many of the same growth markets.
El-Khoury’s answer centered on execution. “What we are going through is a transformation, not a turnaround,” he said. The distinction mattered: he presented onsemi as an operating company that needed a more disciplined strategy, portfolio and resource-allocation system rather than as a failed business requiring wholesale replacement.
He also argued that strategy statements were only a small part of the work: “Getting the strategy and talking about it and putting it out there is actually 10% of the effort.”
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Automotive and industrial as the core
El-Khoury identified automotive and industrial as onsemi’s core markets. He objected to spreading resources across too many opportunities, saying, “We don’t dabble.” The intended change was to select product-market combinations where onsemi could build a durable position, then direct engineering, capital and manufacturing capacity toward them.
In the interview, he said automotive and industrial were expected to represent 75% of the company’s revenue composition in five years. That was a forecast made in 2021, not a current measured result.
Cloud and 5G as adjacent uses
Cloud infrastructure and 5G were not described as equal replacements for the core markets. El-Khoury treated them as adjacent opportunities in which technologies developed for automotive and industrial applications could be reused. He said cloud and 5G were expected to grow at an 11% rate over the same five-year period. This, too, was his 2021 outlook rather than a subsequently verified performance figure.
Focus without pretending every existing product was disposable
The portfolio plan did not necessarily mean exiting entire product lines. El-Khoury discussed shifting capacity away from less strategic product-market combinations, allowing some non-core areas to decline and changing the mix toward “value-based products.” Where a technology was not deeply embedded in the chosen strategy, he left open a divestment. Another option was reusing shared wafer capacity for a more strategic product.
That approach combines pruning with redeployment: management can reduce exposure to low-priority areas without assuming that every facility, process or technology has no further use.
Why power efficiency and packaging were central
Efficiency across the electrification chain
El-Khoury presented onsemi’s capabilities in power conversion and energy efficiency as competitive strengths. In an electric vehicle or another electrified system, power is converted and managed at multiple points, so losses in one stage affect the system’s range, heat and required cooling.
Power density and compact packaging
He also emphasized packaging and power density. A vehicle may need to handle high electrical power in a constrained physical space; delivering more power in a smaller package can help designers manage weight, thermal demands and available room. His description of onsemi as offering “best efficiency” was a CEO assertion in the interview, not the result of an independent benchmark supplied with the episode.
El-Khoury said customers he contacted validated the company’s capabilities. That is likewise his account of customer feedback, not an independently audited customer survey.
The manufacturing model: “fab lighter,” not fabless
El-Khoury said onsemi would remain neither fully fabless nor completely vertically integrated. He described a “fab lighter” direction: reduce the number of buildings, increase useful capacity and lower fixed costs while retaining manufacturing capabilities that matter to the strategy.
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Moving capacity between product-market combinations was part of the same logic. A factory decision was not only about whether to own or outsource production; it was about which internal capacity supported the markets the company had chosen. These were plans described in 2021 and should not be read as a current inventory of onsemi’s factories or capacity.
Sustainability in the interview and in later disclosures
What El-Khoury committed to in 2021
El-Khoury said onsemi had committed to net-zero emissions by 2040. He stressed reducing consumption, increasing renewable-energy use, addressing the company’s own footprint and reporting progress transparently rather than relying mainly on offsets or a marketing claim. He also argued that products that improve customers’ energy efficiency could contribute to a broader environmental benefit.
What onsemi later specified
Onsemi’s current sustainability-report information says the Net Zero 2040 goal, established in 2021, covers Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. The company lists renewable-energy goals of 50% by 2030 and 100% by 2040. It also says its near-term science-based targets were validated by the Science Based Targets initiative in December 2024.
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The published near-term targets are:
- Reduce absolute Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse-gas emissions 58.8% by 2034, using 2022 as the base year.
- Reduce Scope 3 emissions from fuel- and energy-related activities 35.0% over the same period.
- By 2029, have suppliers responsible for 71.3% of emissions from specified categories commit to science-based targets.
These are company-reported commitments and targets, not evidence that the reductions or renewable-energy percentages have already been achieved.
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| Issue | What was said or reported | How to read it |
|---|---|---|
| Market focus | In 2021, El-Khoury made automotive and industrial the core and cloud and 5G adjacent. | A historical strategic direction, not proof of a present revenue mix. |
| Five-year outlook | He forecast automotive and industrial at 75% of revenue composition and 11% growth for cloud and 5G. | Forecasts stated in 2021; the episode does not establish later results. |
| Brand and positioning | Onsemi’s August 5, 2021 brand announcement emphasized automotive and industrial, vehicle electrification, advanced safety, alternative energy and factory automation. | Independent company framing issued shortly before the interview. |
| Technology priorities | A 2023 strategy announcement highlighted silicon carbide, silicon power, power ICs and intelligent sensing for automotive and industrial markets. | Later strategy material; its ambitions should not be treated as achieved results without separate evidence. |
| Sustainability | The current sustainability page retains the Net Zero 2040 goal and lists interim emissions and renewable-energy targets. | Current published commitments, distinct from the CEO’s 2021 explanation and from completed performance. |
| Revenue classification | Onsemi’s 2025 Sustainability Report lists $4,684 million in triple-bottom-line revenue, or 78% of total revenue. | Onsemi’s own classification of products under its intelligent-power-and-sensing umbrella and its people, planet and profit definition; not an independent assessment. |
What the strategy says about competing in crowded growth markets
The interview’s competitive argument was selective specialization. If every integrated-circuit company claims automotive, industrial, cloud and 5G, a broad list of markets does not by itself distinguish one supplier. El-Khoury’s proposed distinction was the ability to connect existing power and sensing technology to demanding applications, then execute consistently enough to earn a larger share of those programs.
That requires choices with consequences:
- Capital goes to selected technologies and customers instead of being spread evenly.
- Manufacturing is judged by strategic usefulness and fixed-cost efficiency, not simply by maximum footprint.
- Non-core activities may shrink, be sold when they are not deeply embedded, or have their capacity reused.
- Adjacent markets are pursued when they can draw on the same technical foundation rather than because they are fashionable categories.
The phrase “transformation, not turnaround” therefore described a change in operating system: portfolio discipline, capacity allocation and follow-through, alongside continuity in the company’s people and brand.
A dated example of the automotive direction
On April 28, 2026, onsemi announced an expanded collaboration with Geely Auto Group to integrate onsemi silicon-carbide technology into Geely vehicle platforms. The announcement shows continuing commercial activity in automotive power technology. It does not, by itself, prove that every forecast or target El-Khoury stated in 2021 was met.
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Key takeaways from the EE Times conversation
- El-Khoury’s “focus” meant prioritizing automotive and industrial markets and reallocating resources toward selected product-market combinations.
- Cloud and 5G were adjacent opportunities for related technology, not the center of the stated strategy.
- Efficiency, packaging and power density were the technical advantages he believed could support that focus; the strongest comparative claims were his own.
- The manufacturing plan was “fab lighter”: fewer buildings and lower fixed costs while retaining strategically important production.
- Net zero by 2040 was part of the 2021 sustainability message; later company disclosures add scope definitions and interim targets but do not convert targets into achieved results.
- Later onsemi announcements continue to emphasize automotive and industrial power and sensing, but those later developments must be kept separate from what the CEO actually said in the 2021 podcast.
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