KEMET Electronics Corporation specializes in passive electronic components, including getters (an essential element in vacuum tubes) and capacitors. The name "KEMET" was derived from the words "chemical" and "metallurgy."

The company was founded in 1919 as KEMET Laboratories in Cleveland, Ohio, as a subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation. The purpose of KEMET was to purchase the assets of Cooper Research Company, which had invented a promising high-temperature alloy that Union Carbide wanted to integrate into some of its operations. KEMET used the advanced alloy to create high-performance grid wires in triode vacuum tubes; these grids regulated the current flow in triodes, which were the precursor to the transistor.

In 1930, KEMET broadened its product line to include barium-aluminum alloy getters. By the late 1950s, KEMET entered the solid-state capacitor industry. In 1958, KEMET changed its market focus to the tantalum capacitor. During the 1960s, capacitors supplanted vacuum tubes as the company's core product, and a large manufacturing plant was built near Greenville, South Carolina. The Greenville plant opened in 1963 and continued operating and expanding through the 1990s. In 1969, the company entered the market of ceramic capacitors.

In 1987, KEMET was reorganized as a separate organization. In 1992, KEMET went public. By 1995, KEMET was the largest manufacturer of tantalum capacitors.

The corporate offices are now located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Today, KEMET is a subsidiary of the Yageo Corporation.