#KLA

A large wall flowchart showing five labelled process steps in sequence, each paired with a small physical sample, a final sample caught being placed to complete the chain

Who Actually Makes the Machines That Make the Chips

This cohort has profiled ASML, Applied Materials, Lam Research, KLA, and Tokyo Electron individually. Here they are side by side — the complete map of who builds the equipment behind every chip in this cohort.

By Brecht Corbeel · August 10, 2026 · 4 min read

A defect map screen in a bright inspection bay showing a mostly clean wafer map with a single new flaw point caught being marked at the exact instant of detection, a scan head visible just past it

AI Hardware & Semiconductors

KLA's Entire Business Is Finding the One Flaw That Ruins a Chip

Deposition builds the layer. Etch cuts the pattern. Neither step tells you whether it worked. That's KLA's job — inspection and metrology, the unglamorous layer that decides what actually ships.

By Brecht Corbeel · August 10, 2026 · 4 min read

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