TDK was founded by Kenzo Saito in Tokyo, Japan, on 7 December 1935 to manufacture the iron-based magnetic material ferrite, which had been recently invented by Yogoro Kato and Takeshi Takei.

TDK produced five million ferrite cores through 1945 that were primarily used to reduce the volume and weight of radio receivers used by the Imperial Japanese military.

[7] In 1980, TDK developed a multilayering technology to create chip capacitors and inductors used in personal computers, laptops, smartphones and other electronic devices.

[10] In September 2015, Imation announced that it had agreed to relinquish this license[13] and would cease selling TDK-branded products by the end of the year.

[14] Since the 2000s, TDK has focussed on the development, manufacture and sales of electronic components, HDD heads and suspension, and power supplies.

[8] Since acquiring numerous companies and sharpening its product line focus in recent years, TDK has begun building a portfolio of varying sensors, actuators and power electronic components through these brands.

These include multi-axis MEMS motion tracking devices and MEMS microphones from InvenSense,[15] a point-of-load DC-DC converter from Faraday Semi,[16] and MEMS-based ultrasonic Time-of-Flight sensors from Chirp Microsystems intended for consumer electronics, AR/VR, robotics, drones, IoT, automotive and industrial market segments.

[17] Other areas of TDK's recent focus include power components for mobile devices,[18] high-stability MEMS accelerometers from Tronics,[19] and miniaturized haptic actuators.

From 1993 to 1999, TDK were also the sponsors of the English football club Crystal Palace, who were promoted to the Premier League twice during this era, though lasting for just one season before being relegated on both occasions.