1. KLA in 30 seconds

2. The logo and how the name is written

3. What the company actually does: the business of process control

The tools in a semiconductor plant divide broadly into two kinds.

KLA is the leading example of the second kind. It describes its business as process control and yield management solutions Sourced. Wafers, reticles (the masters used in lithography), ICs, IC substrates, printed circuit boards and packages: for every one of them, KLA sells a machine whose job is to find what has gone wrong.

There are three reporting segments Sourced.

The shares are this article's own arithmetic Our calculation. Segment revenue excludes internal allocations and currency effects, so the three figures add up to slightly less than consolidated revenue.

One more number shapes this company's character: 23% of revenue is service income Sourced. The company describes it as arising from subscription-like arrangements. A tool is not sold once and forgotten; maintenance revenue keeps arriving for as long as the installed tool runs. FY2026 service revenue was US$3,125.94m, up 16% year on year.

4. Scale: five years of revenue

KLA's income statement carries no operating income line; it runs straight from revenue and costs to income before taxes, so net income is shown here instead. The FY2024 decline includes a US$239.10m impairment of goodwill and intangible assets.

What stands out about this company is how profitable it is. FY2026 gross margin was 61.3% and net margin 35.6% Our calculation. A company that measures earns more than a company that makes, because a measuring tool connects directly to customer yield, a benefit that converts into money without argument. R&D expense ran at 11.3% of revenue and capital expenditure at 2.8%, which next to Applied Materials (capex at 8.0% of revenue) is a notably light footprint in its own plants Our calculation.

How the 17,000 employees break down

As of 30 June 2026. That customer service is the same size as R&D is consistent with service income being 23% of revenue.

5. Company category and position in the back-end industry

The category is a manufacturer, of inspection and metrology equipment. What sets its back-end position decisively apart from Applied Materials and Lam Research is that all three of its segments touch the back end.

1. "The increasing complexity and value of semiconductor packages, led by AI and HPC, is driving significant growth in our advanced packaging business" Sourced
2. On the 12% growth of Semiconductor Process Control, the company cites strong customer adoption of its advanced packaging products as one contributing factor Sourced
3. On the 21% growth of PCB and Component Inspection, it says the main driver was higher demand from customers investing in advanced packaging technology Sourced

Revenue by product category is disclosed, and is given below for reference Sourced. But every one of these categories contains some back-end business, and it cannot be separated out.

Figures in US$ thousands. The shares are as stated in the Form 10-K.

6. Sites and the countries where it manufactures

The company states explicitly that it does not allocate assets to segments, because many of its facilities support several businesses and technologies at once Sourced.

7. Leading products and share in semiconductor back-end work

The products listed under "Packaging Manufacturing"

In the product listing of the Form 10-K, KLA places a row called "Packaging Manufacturing" alongside Chip Manufacturing, Wafer Manufacturing and Reticle Manufacturing inside the Semiconductor Process Control segment Sourced. The technologies and products named there are as follows.

The other two segments carry back-end products as well Sourced.

On market share, plainly

Three things can be stated with confidence from primary sources.

1. In each of FY2024, FY2025 and FY2026, TSMC was the only customer above 10% of revenue Sourced. KLA is the only one of the three equipment makers that names a customer outright
2. "Packaging Manufacturing" stands as its own row in the product listing — primary evidence that the company treats the back end as a business area in its own right Sourced
3. The FY2026 R&D description names the development of process control and process enabling solutions for front-end semiconductors and advanced packaging as a principal activity Sourced

8. Current investment plans

9. Major corporate partners

The companies commonly mentioned alongside KLA in the back-end supply chain, meaning the OSATs, the substrate makers and the materials suppliers, do not appear in KLA's own primary material, so this article does not treat them as partnerships Not yet confirmed.

10. Where the company is heading in this field

What is established

Outlook

Not yet confirmed Read plainly, the facts above point towards KLA's presence in the back end strengthening. The logic is simple: the more layers a package contains, the more value is locked inside it, and the more a failure costs. Inspection equipment behaves like insurance, and demand for it rises in proportion to the value of the asset it protects. Chief executive Rick Wallace said as much in the fourth-quarter release: the build-out of AI infrastructure is creating new growth opportunities in advanced packaging, where KLA's market-leading process control portfolio is well positioned Sourced.

Not yet confirmed Inspection equipment also has a structural weakness: inspection is a step you can skip. The company writes as much in its own risk factors: if changing a manufacturing process becomes very costly for customers, they may reduce their process control equipment budgets by lowering the sampling rate of inspection and metrology for certain technologies Sourced. Once yield settles, inspecting everything gives way to inspecting a sample. How far the yield of advanced packaging eventually stabilises is what sets the ceiling on this business.

11. The risks this company carries

12. Glossary

AI-generated concept

13. References

1. KLA Corporation Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2026 (filed with the U.S. SEC on 6 August 2026). Revenue, net income, R&D expense and capital expenditure; revenue by segment, by product category and by region; headcount and its composition; customer concentration (TSMC); the product listing including Packaging Manufacturing; sites; the stock split; dividends; and risk factors. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/319201/000031920126000027/klac-20260630.htm
2. KLA Corporation Fourth quarter and full year FY2026 earnings release (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1, 28 July 2026). Fourth-quarter revenue of US$3.658bn, full-year revenue of US$13.58bn, shareholder returns, first-quarter FY2027 guidance, the chief executive's comments and the ten-for-one stock split. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/319201/000031920126000024/exhibit991earningsrelease7.htm
3. KLA Corporation Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2025 (filed with the U.S. SEC on 8 August 2025). Revenue, net income, R&D expense and capital expenditure for FY2025 and earlier years. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/319201/000031920125000024/klac-20250630.htm
4. U.S. SEC EDGAR XBRL company facts API (CIK 0000319201). Revenue, net income, cost of revenue, R&D expense and capital expenditure for FY2022 to FY2026, as tagged in each year's Form 10-K. https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0000319201.json

14. Claim-to-source audit

Last updated 21 September 2026 / Troy Technical
Every figure in this article comes from KLA Corporation's statutory filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission or from the company's own announcements. No research-firm estimates or press-based figures have been used.