If in the unlikely event that we have an emergency during the short time that we're together, you can exit through the 2 doors in the back, the ones you came through or there's also a door over here behind the stage, it takes you directly outside, but I don't think that's going to be needed. Okay. So I think that's all we need. Mr. Chairman?
Okay. Good morning, everybody. The 2018 Annual Meeting of Stockholders of Texas Instruments is hereby called order. I'm Rich Templeton, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, and it's my pleasure to welcome you to this year's meeting. Cynthia Troshu, Secretary of the Company, will act as Secretary of this meeting.
The Board of Directors has appointed an independent inspector the votes of this meeting. Cynthia has advised me that holders of more than 90% of the outstanding common stock are represented at the meeting by proxy or in person. This constitutes a quorum. Our purpose at this meeting today is to vote on directors and on 3 board proposals. At this time, I'm pleased to introduce the nominees for election to the TI Board, all except for Brian Krutcher, who were elected at last year's annual meeting.
As I introduce the Director nominees, I ask that they please stand, face the audience, remain standing. In addition to myself, the nominees are Ralph Babb, Mark Lynn, Todd Bluedorn, Dan Karp, Janet Clark, Terry Cox, Brian Krusher, Gene Hobby, Ron Kirk, Pam Patzley and Robert Sanchez. Thank you, directors. You may be seated. Each of these nominees and their qualifications as directors are listed in your proxy statement.
TI's bylaws require advanced notice of proposed director nominations. Since no notice of other nominations has been submitted in accordance with bylaws, the nominations are closed. We will now review the 3 board proposals. The first is an advisory vote on executive compensation or as more commonly known, say on pay. Regarding this proposal, the Board of Directors asked that stockholders approved executive compensation for 2017 as listed in your proxy statement.
The second proposal is a vote to approve the Texas Instruments 2018 direct and compensation plan. The Board asked that stockholders approve the plan. The 3rd and final proposal on our agenda today is to request for stockholders to ratify the appointment of as the company's independent registered public accounting firm for 2018. The full text of the Board proposals are in your proxy statement. This would be an appropriate time for comment on the director nominations and the Board proposals.
Please raise your hand if you would like to comment. Please limit your comments to a total of 3 minutes. Madam Secretary, we will now open the polls for voting so that anyone who has not already submitted their votes may do so at this time. Please raise your hand if you need a ballot. The right to vote directly at this meeting is limited to stockholders of record and proxy holders.
I will note that the votes of our 401 participants and the votes submitted prior to the start of this meeting either by mail, phone or Internet have already been counted. Any stockholder of record wishes to change the previously submitted vote, you may do so now also by raising your hand for a ballot. After voting, please return ballots to the administrators in the aisles. While the votes are being tabulated, I will take a few moments to provide an update on our strategy to continue to make PI stronger and our progress and performance to date. Having the right strategy at the right time is fundamental to the company's success.
And thanks to the hard work and effort of TI employees around the world, that's where we find ourselves today. We have a solid strategy in place with 30,000 people working towards common objectives designed to continue to position TI well among its peers and to make TI stronger in the years ahead. Let's take a closer look at what we've done and where we are going and what we believe is the most exciting period in TI's history. At TI, we are focused on the best products, analog and embedded process in the best markets, industrial and automotive. We've made tremendous progress on centering up the company's resources and energies on these areas.
At year end, about 90% of TI's revenue came from analog and embedded processing, up from 79% in 2013, And about 54% of our revenue was sold into industrial and automotive markets, up 12 percentage points from 2013. Why the emphasis on these products and markets? Simply put, we think they're the best ones in the semiconductor industry and will be for years to come. While not always the high profile products and markets, the payoffs they provide to TI and its owners are steady, substantial and sustainable. Here's why we like them.
Analog and embedded processing are pervasive technologies. They underpin most electronic products today and more importantly are the enablers of electronics of tomorrow. That combined with their long product life cycles, intrinsic diversity and need for less capital intensive manufacturing makes them extremely attractive products with a demonstrated ability, history of stability, profitability and strong cash generation that spans decades. While we see good opportunities in all markets we serve, we believe that industrial and automotive will be the primary growth drivers in our industry and at TI over the next decade or more. These markets are in the early stages of semiconductor adoption as manufacturers make their products smarter, safer, more connected and more efficient.
We're all familiar with the growing electronic content in our own cars and that trend will accelerate as the number of hybrid and electric vehicles increases and as more safety features are added to vehicles that operate more autonomously. The potential in industrial is even greater as it is larger, more diverse and still in its infancy of chip adoption. Industrial applications are broad ranging from smart thermostats that sense motion, humidity and temperature to more complex applications like smart factories with motors that use less energy, robotic assembly lines that operate more autonomously and accurately and sensors to gauge fluid levels and dispatch alert when a refill is required. These capabilities are finding their way into hundreds of industrial applications, which require analog and embedded processing technology and that translates into new and exciting opportunities. Bottom line, we expect the analog and embedded and industrial and automotive to outperform the overall semiconductor market and be our primary growth engines in the coming years.
As such, we've made accelerating their growth a priority. Over time, we've invested in 4 sustainable competitive advantages that combined with our business model, which focuses on the best products in the best markets and are designed to create long term value for our owners. 1, strong foundation of manufacturing and differentiated technology 2, a growth portfolio of differentiated and analog and embedded products 3, the broadest reach of market channels and 4, the diversity and longevity of our products, markets and customer positions. Each of these advantages have served TI well. For example, we do most of our manufacturing in house and on 300 millimeter wafers cost advantage capacity that our peers cannot match.
Our broad product portfolio means we have more differentiated parts to meet our customers' need than our competitors, giving us more access to more customers and more opportunities to solve their problems. Similarly, our market reach, whether through direct sales and applications teams or through ti.com, gives us access to more customers, more projects and more sockets for each of those projects than our peers. And finally, we also see strength in diversity, whether it's products, markets or customers, as we are not singularly dependent on the next top product or market. And longevity with life cycles that could be measured in years or even decade translates decades translates into higher return on investment. We intend to strengthen and leverage these advantages with a view towards the long term.
Taken together, our competitive advantages provide tangible benefits such as growth, profitability and strong cash flow generation that few of our peers can match. And after investing for growth, we are committed to returning all of our free cash flow to our owners. 2017 marked this year of solid performance for our company. Top line revenue grew 12% compared to 2016, driven by analog and embedded processing. Gross margin and operating margin grew to 64% and 41%, respectively.
We converted 31.2 percent of our revenue into free cash flow and we generated $4,700,000,000 of free cash flow and returned $4,700,000,000 to our owners through a combination of dividends and stock repurchases. As most of you know, we announced in the Q1 that Brian Fletcher will assume the role of President and CEO effective June 1, and I will continue as Chairman. I have every confidence in Brian's leadership, his strategic thoughtfulness and competitive drive, and I know the company will be in great hands. One objective for most CEOs is to leave the company better positioned than when you began. With that as the benchmark, I look forward to watching the progress Brian and his team will make during their years of stewardship, making TI stronger, fostering the ethical and innovative culture that is at the core of this company and exemplified by our people every day and delivering more value to our customers and our owners.
Madam Secretary, you will receive the results of the voting.
According to the report of the inspectors, the 12 persons nominated by the Board have been elected, each received at least 87% support with no more than 13% voting against and less than 1% abstaining. The advisory vote regarding executive compensation received approximately 94% support with approximately 6% voting to disapprove and less than 1% abstaining. The Board of Directors proposal to approve the Texas Instruments 2018 director compensation plan was also approved. The proposal received approximately 96% support with approximately 4% voting against and less than 1% abstaining. Lastly, the Board's proposal to ratify the appointment of Ernst and Young as the company's independent registered public accounting firm was also approved.
The proposal received approximately 96% support with approximately 3% voting against and less than 1% abstaining. That concludes my report.
At this time, I will open the floor to questions or comments. As a courtesy to all present or listening via webcast, our rules call for comments to be limited to 5 minutes per person regardless of the number of topics you wish to address. If we have no questions, I will close the meeting. I want to emphasize that we are pleased to have you as the stockholders of Texas Instruments. We will stay focused on making your investment in TI more valuable.
Thank you for coming today. We are hereby adjourned. Thank you.