#explainer

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

$A design-file handoff station in a bright fab where a data cartridge from an outside customer is caught mid-insertion into a reader, the slot still a fraction open around it$

AI Hardware & Semiconductors

What a Foundry Actually Is, and Why the Idea Was Once Considered Strange

"Foundry" gets used constantly in AI hardware coverage without ever being explained. The concept it names is simpler than it sounds, and its history explains almost everything else in this cohort's foundry briefings.

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

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