E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company is a chemical company, commonly referred to as the DuPont Company, which was established in 1802 by French immigrants Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) and his son Eleuthère Irénée “E.I.” du Pont (1771-1834). The company began as a manufacturer of black powder.

Over time, the company established plants all over the United States and began to manufacture other products in addition to gunpowder and explosives. These included paints, dyes, and photographic products. The company also focused on applied research.

In the summer of 1981, a four-way bidding war errupted over the control of Conoco Inc., the world's ninth-largest oil company. DuPont and Conoco closed the deal on September 30, 1981. Conoco became a DuPont subsidiary at a cost of $7.8 billion in the largest U.S. business deal up to that time. Control of Conoco also included its subsidiary, Consolidation Coal Company, one of the two largest U.S. producers of bituminous coal, and DuPont switched several of its plants from oil to coal. Oil prices fell during the 1980s in response to greater conservation and efficiency, and DuPont moved away from oil-dependent products. In 1998, oil prices dropped sharply, causing DuPont's stock value to fall from 84 to 53 dollars per share. DuPont sold 30 percent of Conoco in a public offering in October 1998 and sold the remaining 70 percent back to Conoco in 1998 and 1999.

In the twenty-first century, the DuPont Company has focused on science, with a diverse set of interests and products. It operates in more than ninty countries, with corporate headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, and employs more than 60,000 people worldwide, including 10,000 scientists and engineers.