The company owns Rolls-Royce, a business established in 1904 which today designs, manufactures and distributes power systems for aviation and other industries.

Rolls-Royce is the world's second-largest maker of aircraft engines[3] (after CFM International)[4] and has major businesses in the marine propulsion and energy sectors.

[8] Rolls-Royce grew from the engineering business of Henry Royce, which was established in 1884 and ten years later began to manufacture dynamos and electric cranes.

Between 2010 and 2018, Rolls-Royce invested £11 billion in facilities and R&D and launched six new civil engines including the Trent XWB and the Pearl 15 for the business aviation market.

[13] In 2023, Rolls-Royce entered into an agreement for $3.52 million of funding with the UK Space Agency for the creation of a nuclear reactor on the moon.

[20][21][22] In February 2017 Rolls-Royce posted its largest ever pre-tax loss of £4.6 billion; This included a £4.4 billion writedown on financial hedges that the company uses to protect itself against currency fluctuations, and a £671 million penalty to settle bribery and corruption charges with the Serious Fraud Office (SFO), the US Department of Justice, and Brazilian authorities.

[26][27] In August 2018 Rolls-Royce announced it was taking a charge of £554 million to cover faults with some Trent 1000 engines on Boeing 787 Dreamliners.

[31] In February 2021, Rolls-Royce started talks concerning an operational shutdown of its civil aerospace unit that might last for two weeks due to the impact of Covid-19 and its restrictions.

[33] Rolls-Royce's £90 million test bed 80 is the largest of its kind, sized for engines of up to 140,000 lbf (620 kN) of thrust.

Rolls-Royce had previously tried to buy the company when General Motors sold it in 1993, but GM opted for a management buyout instead for $370 million.

Owing to Allison's involvement in classified and export restricted technology, the 1994 acquisition was subject to investigation to determine the national security implications.

In early 2006, SAIC exited the joint venture agreement, making Rolls-Royce plc the sole owner.

[50] In March 2011, Rolls-Royce and Daimler AG launched a $4.2 billion public tender offer for 100 per cent of the share capital of Tognum AG, the owner of MTU Friedrichshafen – a leading high-speed industrial and marine diesel engine manufacturer, which was completed using a 50:50 joint venture company.

[52] At the June 2019 Paris Air Show, Rolls-Royce announced its acquisition of Siemens' electric propulsion branch (while they are partners on the E-Fan X demonstrator), to be completed in late 2019, employing 180 in Germany and Hungary.

[55] In September 2019, Rolls-Royce agreed to sell its civil nuclear services businesses in the U.S., Canada, Mondragon France, and Gateshead UK to the Westinghouse Electric Company for an undisclosed sum.

[65] On 17 April 2015, it was announced that Rolls-Royce had received its largest order to date worth £6.1bn ($9.2bn) to supply engines for 50 Emirates A380 planes.

[70] On the military side, Rolls-Royce, in co-operation with other European manufacturers, has been a major contractor for the RB199 which in several variants powers the Panavia Tornado, and also for the EJ200 engine for the Eurofighter Typhoon.

[72] On 18 June 2007, Rolls-Royce announced at the 2007 Paris Air Show that it had signed a large contract with Qatar Airways for the Trent XWB to power 80 A350s on order from Airbus worth $5.6 billion at list prices.

[73] On 11 November 2007, Rolls-Royce announced at the Dubai Airshow that it had signed its largest ever contract with Emirates for Trent XWBs to power 50 A350-900 and 20 A350-1000 aircraft with 50 option rights.

[74] On 20 November 2007, Rolls-Royce announced plans to build its first Asian aero engine facility in the Seletar Aerospace Park, Singapore.

[77] In May 2012, Rolls-Royce Marine Power Operations won a Ministry of Defence contract worth more than £400 million for the integration of the reactor design, the PWR3, for UK's next generation nuclear-armed submarines.

In 2014, facing allegations of bribery in the aftermath of the Sudhir Choudhrie affair, Rolls-Royce offered to return money to the Indian government.

[83] In October 2016 a joint Guardian and BBC investigation alleged widespread corruption by Rolls-Royce through middlemen in foreign countries including Brazil, India, China, Indonesia, South Africa, Angola, Iraq, Iran, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia.

[86] Subsequent to the settlement, Private Eye reported that some of Rolls-Royce's contracts under the scope of the SFO investigation had been supported by the British government's UK Export Finance department, using taxpayers' money.

The government department underwrote multimillion-pound liabilities under Rolls-Royce contracts secured with the help of bribes and "facilitation" commissions.

Its core gas turbine technology has created one of the broadest product ranges of aero-engines in the world, with 50,000 engines in service with 500 airlines, 2,400 corporate and utility operators and more than 100 armed forces, powering both fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft.

Rolls-Royce Marine Power Operations (a subsidiary company) manufactures and tests nuclear reactors for Royal Naval submarines.