Founded by Marc Lassus, Daniel Le Gal, Philippe Maes, Jean-Pierre Gloton and Gilles Lisimaque, Gemplus started its operations in 1988 as a supplier of prepaid phonecards.

In April 2005, Gemplus acquired Setec Oy, a company headquartered in Finland that, among other things, supplies conventional and electronic travel passports to various government agencies and products involving secure printing.

[8] In October 2010, Gemalto filed a lawsuit against Google, Samsung, HTC and Motorola over the Android operating system in the Eastern District of Texas.

Ars Technica quoted ING[clarification needed] analysts who estimated that winning this lawsuit could potentially bring the company royalty receipts amounting to 30-50 million Euros per annum.

However, in June 2014, a panel of judges in the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled in favor of the defendants that Android phones don't infringe on those patents.

In February 2023, Gemalto was the subject of a judicial investigation for "corruption" and "criminal association" concerning a dozen government contracts in six countries on the African continent.[1].

The companies announced that Gemalto would provide this capability by acting as the trusted service manager to bridge banking with mobile phones.

Hansabank Estonia, HBOS UK, HSBC UK, ING Belgium, JCB, LHV Pank Estonia, National Bank of Greece, OpBank, Parex Bank (Latvia), Sampo (Finland), Société Générale, Agip France, Arena Netherlands, BMW, B.P., Esso, Sodexo, and Total France.

[17] In April 2016, National Commercial Bank (NCB) of Saudi Arabia appointed Gemalto as its supplier for dual-interface EMV cards.

[18] As of November 2008, Gemalto's Instant Issuance service has been installed in over 300 shopping malls worldwide, enabling one million credit cards to be issued on the spot per year.

[19] In July 2008, Gemalto began providing its CardLikeMe service to PlasticNow in Canada, giving consumers the ability to customize their card with the photo of their choice.

[28] In June 2007, The Financial Information Network and Operations Ltd. (FINO PayTech Limited) in India began deploying Gemalto smart cards with biometric authentication.

In September 2017, Gemalto announced that its biometric ePassport technology is currently being used in more than 30 different countries, including Algeria, Denmark, Finland, Hong Kong, France, Italy, Korea, Morocco, Norway, Peru, Portugal, Singapore, Sweden and the United States.

[38] In December 2007, Gemalto began supplying Sweden with e-driver's licenses that contain a transparent window in the polycarbonate structure, aimed at enhanced physical security.

[41] As of December 2009, Gemalto has provided 25 million Common Access Cards to the United States Department of Defense for employee and contractor use.

[42] ID cards issued by the Swedish Tax Agency since September 2017 have electronic identification provided by AB Svenska Pass, a subsidiary of Gemalto.

[45] In April 2008, Alternative Technology began offering Gemalto's on-demand Device Administration Service (DAS) through its network of 3,000 resellers in the United States and Canada.

[46] In April 2008, Envoy Data Corporation began offering Gemalto's on-demand Device Administration Service (DAS) through its network of IT security specialized VARs.

[48] In July 2008, Gemalto began deploying Protiva .NET Dual tokens at Virchow Krause & Company LLP (VK), the 15th largest accounting firm in the United States.

[54] In 2006, Gemalto organized a Microsoft-sponsored contest, SecureTheWeb, for the best new development in secure personal devices for Web services, such as smart cards and one-time passwords (OTPs).

[56] This followed a previous announcement earlier in January 2007 that Gemalto’s .NET and Protiva solutions[buzzword] were recognized by Citrix Systems as compatible with its products.

The secret GCHQ document leaked by Snowden also claimed the ability to manipulate billing records to conceal their own activity and having access to authentication servers to decrypt voice calls and text messages.

"[62] The breach subsequently refueled suspicions against Gemalto chairman Alex J. Mandl, given his role in the CIA venture capital firm In-Q-Tel.

[64] Gemalto issued a press release on February 25, 2015 saying there were "reasonable grounds to believe that an operation by NSA and GCHQ probably happened", but denying that the government agencies gained access to any authentication keys.

[67] Key partners of Gemalto include Wipro, Prodapt, Maya, Sendum, Unique Computing Solutions, Symphony Teleca, Bing, Kore, West, etc.