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History

Since the company’s inception in 1976, National Instruments has grown from a three-man operation based out of the founders’ homes to a multinational corporation with more than 5,200 employees. With off-the-shelf software such as NI LabVIEW and cost-effective modular hardware, NI has transformed the way engineers and scientists design, prototype, and deploy systems for measurement, automation, and embedded applications for more than 30 years. Throughout its history, NI has been recognized as a company that continuously develops award-winning, innovative products that help simplify the jobs of engineers and scientists worldwide.

1970s

  • 1976 - Work on the first product begins in the garage of NI President, CEO, and Cofounder, Dr. James Truchard in Austin, Texas
  • 1977 - NI announces its first GPIB product to connect scientific instruments to microcomputers, and Kelly Air Force Base of San Antonio, Texas, becomes the company's first customer
  • 1979 - Dr. Truchard joins NI as a full-time employee

1980s

  • 1980 - Cofounders Jeff Kodosky and Bill Nowlin join NI as full-time employees
  • 1986 - NI announces LabVIEW graphical development software
  • 1988 - NI announces its first plug-in data acquisition boards for IBM PC users

    • Branch offices opened this decade: NI Japan (1987), NI France and NI U.K. (1988), NI Italy (1989)

1990s

  • 1994 - NI launches a Web site, Instrumentation Web, at www.natinst.com as a natural extension of its direct sales model and an information source for engineers and scientists
  • 1995 - Initial public offering (IPO) of NI stock begins on March 15
  • 1997 - NI launches PXI, creating an open industry standard for modular computer-based systems

Branch offices opened this decade: NI Switzerland and NI Germany (1990); NI Netherlands, NI Denmark, NI Spain, NI Australia, NI Sweden, and NI Belgium (1991); NI Canada, NI Finland, and NI Norway (1992); NI Austria and NI Taiwan (1993); NI Singapore, NI Korea, and NI Hong Kong (1994); NI Europe and NI Mexico (1995); NI Israel (1996); NI China and NI Brazil (1997); NI Malaysia (1998); NI New Zealand, NI Greece, NI India, NI Portugal, and NI Poland (1999)

R&D Facilities opened this decade: Shanghai, China (1998) and Aachen, Germany (1999)

2000s

  • 2002 - NI opens first overseas manufacturing facility in Debrecen, Hungary
  • 2004 - NI introduces NI CompactRIO, a high-performance embedded control and acquisition platform powered by reconfigurable I/O (RIO) technology
  • 2009 - For the 10th consecutive year, FORTUNE magazine names NI to its annual "100 Best Companies to Work For" list

Branch offices opened this decade: NI Czech Republic, NI Slovenia, and NI South Africa (2000); NI Russia (2001); NI Hungary (Debrecen) and NI Thailand (2002); NI Hungary (Budaörs) (2003); NI Lebanon (2004); NI Romania (2005); NI Turkey (2006); NI Armenia (2007); and NI Philippines and NI Slovakia (2008)

R&D Facilities opened this decade: Bangalore, India (2000); Mountain View, CA (2003); Debrecen, Hungary (2004); Toronto, Canada, Cluj-Napoca, Romania, Boston, MA, Cleavland Ohio (2005); Santa Rosa, CA (2006); Hørsholm, Denmark and Berkeley, CA (2008); and Penang, Malaysia (2010)