Most fast computer memory forgets everything the instant the power fails. Everspin's chips store each bit in a tiny magnet, so the data stays put. That makes them useful in places where losing the last second of work is expensive: storage systems and factory machines. Everspin was born in 2008 as a spin-off from Freescale Semiconductor. When it went public in October 2016, its ticker said exactly what it sold: MRAM.

Out of Freescale

Freescale spun out its MRAM business as Everspin in June 2008, and the new company shipped products from day one. MRAM stands for magnetoresistive random access memory. Everspin processed its own magnetic layers at a 200mm plant in Chandler, Arizona. It also signed GLOBALFOUNDRIES to build its denser chips on 300mm wafers. The bet was that MRAM would win in systems that cannot afford to lose data in a power failure.

A Ticker Named MRAM

Everspin priced 5 million shares at $8 in October 2016 and listed on Nasdaq under the symbol MRAM. The company had a history of losses and warned investors of it in the prospectus. GLOBALFOUNDRIES, its manufacturing partner, could also build Everspin's technology into its own chips and pay royalties. Everspin kept selling its chips into industrial and data-storage systems. Everspin remains a public company on Nasdaq, still trading as MRAM.

Cover: Awa Province: Naruto Whirlpools (Awa, Naruto no fūha), from the series Famous Places in the Sixty-Odd Provinces (Rokujūyoshmeisho zue), Utagawa Hiroshige. Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. Chosen for spinning whirlpools (magnetic spin).