The driving force behind the establishment of High Tech Campus Eindhoven was Philips. At the end of the 1990s, the R&D activities of the company were spread right across Eindhoven.
In 1998, to remedy this, Philips established the Philips High Tech Campus to act as a single location for all its national R&D activities. This approach proved highly successful. The atmosphere of openness and the concentration of high-end knowledge produced considerable interaction between researchers of different technical disciplines. Knowledge sharing and mutual inspiration generated a definite boost for the innovative capacity of the organisation. To further accelerate this process, Philips decided in 2003 to open up the Campus to other technological companies. The result was a massive growth with numerous innovative companies – both large and small – keen to become part of this R&D hotspot.
Since March 2012 the Campus entered a new phase. High Tech Campus Eindhoven is, after being sold by Philips to Ramphastos Investments, an independent organisation. In recent years, the Campus expanded further with the establishment of new companies and expansion of already established companies.