The merged NXP and Freescale will make cars smarter from bumper to bumper

The US$40 billion NXP-Freescale merger creates one supplier of all the chips needed for cars as they evolve toward driving themselves, executives of the two companies say.

The two big silicon vendors, Freescale Semiconductor and NXP Semiconductors, closed their merger on Monday. It's the latest big deal between chip makers as an industry that thrives on scale and integration seeks further consolidation. The combined company will have NXP's name and global headquarters in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

The new NXP is a dominant maker of many kinds of embedded processors, with No. 1 positions in making chips for payment cards and cars. Just last week, Freescale announced a chip as thin as a blade of grass for cards and other uses.

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