Which corporate research lab invented the transistor in 1947?

Bell Labs invented the first working transistor in 1947.

Physicists John Bardeen and Walter Brattain built the first successful point-contact transistor at Bell Telephone Laboratories in December 1947, working under the direction of William Shockley. Their device used a small piece of germanium and closely spaced gold contacts to amplify an electrical signal.

The transistor was designed as a practical alternative to vacuum tubes, which were large, fragile, power-hungry, and produced substantial heat. Bell Labs publicly announced the invention in 1948, and the technology soon transformed telecommunications, radio, computing, and consumer electronics.

The wording can cause a minor misunderstanding: Bell Labs was the research organization, while Bardeen, Brattain, and Shockley were the scientists credited with the invention. Shockley later developed the improved junction transistor. In 1956, all three received the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on semiconductors and the transistor effect.