Semiconductor Materials & Equipment
Case studies in semiconductor materials & equipment.
Applied Materials: Who Gets the First Look?
Applied Materials sells equipment and services used to manufacture semiconductors and displays. Semiconductor manufacturing depends on tightly linked steps: a tool must work with the materials and processes around it, then meet a chipmaker’s yield, throughput, and reliability requirements at production scale. Read case
KLA Corporation: How Much to Commit to Advanced Packaging?
KLA Corporation sells inspection, metrology and process-control systems used in semiconductor manufacturing. In its fiscal 2024 third quarter, ended March 31, 2024, revenue was $2.360 billion, down 3% from a year earlier. Product revenue fell 7%, while service revenue increased 12%. Read case
Lam Research: funding the next process inflection
Lam Research has spent decades building expertise in deposition, etch, clean and related wafer-fabrication processes. On October 23, 2024, the company reported a second consecutive quarter of revenue growth and told investors it expected wafer-fabrication-equipment spending to rise in calendar 2025. Read case
Onto Innovation: Turning a Strategic Stake into a Product
On August 10, Onto Innovation completed its purchase of a 27% minority stake in Rigaku Holdings Corporation for approximately $720 million. Onto had announced the purchase in April at an estimated $710 million, alongside a collaboration to combine Rigaku’s X-ray measurement platform with Onto’s analytics software. Read case
Qnity: Is the AI materials thesis structural or cyclical?
DuPont completed the separation of its Electronics business on November 1, 2025. Qnity began trading on the New York Stock Exchange two days later, on November 3. Read case
Teradyne — Where to Place the Next Bet
On 31 July 2026, Teradyne filed its second-quarter Form 10-Q. The quarter showed a sharp increase in Semiconductor Test revenue and a smaller but improving Robotics business. Management said strategic investment had contributed to Semiconductor Test results and that judicious additional investment would be needed to support growth in 2027. Read case