E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. (alternatively referred to as the DuPont Company, or simply DuPont) was reincorporated on February 26, 1902, as successor to the partnership Eleuthère Irénée "E.I." du Pont (1771-1834) and his father Pierre Samuel "P.S." du Pont de Nemours (1739-1817) had organized in 1801 for the purpose of manufacturing gunpowder in the United States. During the twentieth century, the company diversified beyond gunpowder and explosives into the broader chemicals industry.

In 1899, the company dissolved its original partnership and incorporated it to redistribute the company's increasingly complex executive responsibilities. Eugene du Pont (1840-1902) became president of this new firm but unexpectedly passed away in 1902. With no tenable options for a successor to the presidency, the remaining officers decided to sell the company. Three du Pont cousins, Alfred I. du Pont (1864-1935), T. Coleman du Pont (1863-1930), and Pierre S. (P.S.) du Pont (1870-1954), purchased the company to keep management within the du Pont family. E. I. du Pont de Nemours & Co. was reincorporated on February 26, 1902. The next year the company began experimenting with new forms of organization, creating an executive committee on which both the corporate officers and departmental heads were represented.

In 1902, DuPont established its first formal research and development laboratory, the Eastern Laboratory, via the subsidiary Eastern Dynamite Company in New Jersey. In 1903, DuPont's Executive Committee established a second research facility, the Experimental Station, across from the company's original gunpowder works on Brandywine Creek. This facility first focused research on explosives, but after a decade or so, it became a vehicle for the company's goals of diversifying the business as it faced competition from the military for smokeless powder production and pressure from the government's antitrust scrutiny. By 1905, the company had consolidated under its control three-fourths of the U.S. explosives industry, which included the manufacture of black powder, dynamite, and smokeless powder. In 1907, the Justice Department filed a suit claiming that E. I. du Pont de Nemours was in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. In 1909, the company officially adopted the "DuPont oval" trademark, which became ubiquitous on its products.

The decade from 1911 to 1921 was turbulent yet profitable for the company. The antitrust litigation was settled in 1912 when the company divested itself of its high explosives business, and the Atlas Powder Company and Hercules Powder Company were set up as independent entities. After this reorganization, P.S. du Pont was named chairman and chief executive officer.

During the First World War, DuPont became the largest supplier of munitions for the Allies and expanded its research and development efforts in anticipation of needing a use for its expanded smokeless powder production capacity after the war's end. The company expanded its product lines to include dyes, celluloid plastics, rubber-coated fabrics, acids, heavy chemicals, pigments, paints, and varnishes.

The Executive Committee was reconstituted on September 19, 1914, with Pierre's brother Irénée du Pont, Sr., as chairman, and later that year, T. Coleman du Pont announced his intention to sell his shares, which were eventually purchased by Pierre and other close family members through an investment company that later became the Christiana Securities Company. As a result of these changes, the E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company was reincorporated in Delaware on September 4, 1915. It then purchased all the E.I. du Pont de Nemours Powder Company assets, which had been set up in 1903 as an operating company, becoming the sole parent company. The Powder Company continued to exist as a corporate shell until 1926. After this reorganization, Pierre S. du Pont was named president and chief executive officer. Alfred I. du Pont was ousted from the company in a family dispute in 1916, leaving Pierre, his siblings, and his allies in complete control of the management.

A complete reorganization followed in 1921 in response to the 1920-1921 economic recession. The company was reorganized into autonomous operating or industrial departments based on product lines and coordinated by a central corporate office. In the 1920s, the company used its wartime profits to expand further into synthetics. In 1922, the company established a Fundamental Research Program as it set up laboratories devoted to physical, polymer, and organic chemistry. DuPont formed two joint ventures with French firm Comptoir des Textiles Artificiels, one to produce artificial silk (rayon) and the other cellophane, both of which would become profitable products for the company. Also during this period, DuPont invested its surplus capital in the General Motors Corporation, and by the mid-1920s, it had obtained a controlling interest.

In 1935, the company introduced its advertising slogan, "Better Things for Better Living Through Chemistry," indicative of its growth beyond explosives. In 1937, the polymer chemistry laboratory, under the leadership of Dr. Wallace Carothers (1896-1937), developed nylon. DuPont exhibited its new products to great success at the world's fairs in 1939 in San Francisco and New York, and after the Second World War, nylon and the synthetic fibers that followed became the company's major source of revenue.

During the Second World War, DuPont played an important role in the government's atomic energy program, as a number of its scientists worked on the Manhattan Project. The company built atomic reactors at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Hanford, Washington. In 1943, DuPont introduced "Teflon" (tetrafluoroethylene resin) and "Alathon" (polyethylene resin).

In 1948, the U.S. government again filed suit against the DuPont Company, alleging that its association with General Motors constituted an unlawful restraint of trade. This lawsuit was settled in 1962, at which time DuPont was ordered to sell all its G.M. stock. The company signaled an additional commitment to research and development of new products with a $30 million expansion of the Experimental Station in 1948. The company introduced new synthetic fibers, including "Orlon" acrylic fiber (1948), "Dacron" polyester fiber (1950), and "Mylar" polyester film (1952).

During the 1960s and 1970s, the company underwent several reorganizations as it exited the gunpowder and high explosives business to concentrate on textile fibers, biochemicals, plastics, and pharmaceuticals. Several significant products entered the market during this period. The company introduced "Tyvek" in 1961. Originally developed by William Hale Charch (1898-1958) of the Textile Fibers Department in the 1940s, the nonwoven paper-like fabric protected against external moisture while allowing internal moisture to escape. Its use as a building wrap in the construction industry dominated the market in the 1970s. In 1965, scientist Stephanie L. Kwolek (1923-2014) of DuPont's Pioneering Research Laboratory (PRL) developed a cold-spun liquid crystal polymer which became the basis for a new fiber, "Kevlar." A fiber of remarkable strength and durability, the material would be used in body armor and cut-resistant gloves, among other products. "Nomex" heat-resistant fiber followed in 1967. "Corfam," a synthetic leather product introduced during this time, failed to gain a significant hold in the market. In 1969, DuPont acquired Endo Pharmaceuticals to increase its presence in the pharmaceutical industry.

In 1974, the company announced its intention to phase out all dynamite manufacturing in the United States by the end of 1976. Irving Shapiro (1916-2001) also became CEO in 1974. By this time, the fibers industry was suffering from overcapacity, and the demand for DuPont's fiber products fell sharply in the mid-1970s while raw material costs rose. In response, the company looked toward new mergers and acquisitions outside of the fiber industry. The largest of these was the purchase of the Conoco Oil Company in 1981. At the time, Conoco was the nine-largest oil company in the world, and the $7.8 billion deal was the largest in the United States up to that time.

DuPont also bought Remington Arms, a sporting firearms and ammunition manufacturer, in 1980. To reduce the company's reliance on petrochemicals, the company pursued the fields of biomedical products and agricultural chemicals. When Edward G. Jefferson (1921-2006) became CEO in 1981, he directed the company further toward the biosciences and other specialty chemicals industries. DuPont purchased New England Nuclear Corporation in 1981, Solid State Dielectrics in 1982, and the agrichemicals division of special chemical distributor SEPIC in 1982. In 1986, the company acquired Elit Circuits, Inc. Also that year, DuPont introduced its stain-resistant Stainmaster carpets. The company also pursued multiple joint ventures, particularly outside of the United States.

By the mid-1980s, DuPont had eight primary business units (ranging from agricultural and industrial chemicals to energy fields in coal and petroleum) operating in more than fifty countries. To fight bloat, the company focused on the most profitable business efforts in oil, health care, electronics, and specialty chemicals.

The company continued to streamline in the 1990s. In 1991, DuPont spun off its pharmaceuticals business into a joint venture with Merck & Co., which lasted until 1998, when DuPont purchased back Merck's shares and renamed it to DuPont Pharmaceutical Company. In 2001, DuPont sold the business to Bristol-Myers Squibb Company. They also reduced their efforts in the electronics products industry and sold half of their interest in Consolidation Coal Co. to focus again on chemicals and fibers. DuPont recorded several years of record profits in the middle of the decade.

In 1998, Charles Holliday became CEO, and the company began a large restructuring program emphasizing bioscience in addition to its historical commitment to chemistry innovation. DuPont moved away from oil-dependent products and divested Conoco in the late 1990s, selling 30 percent of the company in a public offering and the remaining 70 percent back to Conoco. In 1999, DuPont acquired Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., at the time the leading producer of hybrid corn and soybean seeds. In addition to exiting the pharmaceutical business, the textile fibers business was sold to Koch Industries. Holliday also expanded efforts in the coating technology industry, automotive coatings, and inkjet and imaging business. DuPont also faced new legal challenges beginning in the late 1990s and continuing into the twenty-first century, as multiple lawsuits were filed relating to synthetic compound PFOA, which is associated with health and environmental risks, used in Teflon production.

In 2009, Ellen Kullman (1956-) succeeded Holliday as CEO, the first woman to head the company, and continued expanding into international markets. In 2011, the company acquired a controlling interest in Danish biotechnology company Danisco A/S. In 2013, the company sold its Performance Coatings business, an industry in which DuPont had been involved since the early 1920s with the development of Duco quick-drying lacquers.

In 2015, DuPont spun off its Performance Chemicals segment into the independently operated Chemours Company and began efforts to merge with The Dow Chemical Company. The merger was completed in 2017 with the formation of DowDuPont, but subsequently, this new company split into three separate entities. These are Dow Inc., DuPont de Nemours, Inc. (referred to as DuPont), and Corteva Agriscience.