Semiconductor Manufacturing
KLA Corporation
A near-monopoly process control equipment maker where roughly 90% of revenue comes from semiconductor inspection tools that check every wafer at every leading-edge fab, positioned as an increasingly critical bottleneck-buster as AI chip complexity below 7 nanometers raises yield-loss risk.
Leading Indicators
Hiring and patent filing trends — the underlying numbers Momentum is computed from. Insider filing activity is tracked separately under Sources below.
Additional Intelligence Signals
Patent citation lineage, earnings-call mentions, and federal contract disclosures — automatically collected, not yet visible anywhere else on the site.
Federal contract disclosures
Department of Defense — $248,751: THE IMICRO INCLUDES THE IQWAVE2(TM) ADVANCED CONTROLLER, ENHANCING PRECISION AND CONTROL FOR ALL TESTING SCENARIOS.
USAspending.gov · Sep 18, 2025
Department of Commerce — $52,429: OU73-FY26-055-NEW NANOSWIFT CONTROLLER
USAspending.gov · Apr 2, 2026
National Aeronautics and Space Administration — $35,881: MAINTENANCE CONTRACT AND HEALTH CHECK FOR 2 PROFILOMETER SYSTEMS IN DDL
USAspending.gov · Jun 3, 2026
Department of Commerce — $28,718: REPLACEMENT AND SERVICE TO REPAIR SPTS OMEGA C2L RAPIER ETCH SYSTEM
USAspending.gov · Jan 9, 2023
Department of Defense — $19,315: XACTIX RE UPGRADE
USAspending.gov · Dec 12, 2025
Sources
Every claim traced to a primary source — evidence, recent activity, and insider filing behavior, all in one place.
Evidence
4 sources · 1 government/SEC filing · 74% avg. source confidence
- U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (EDGAR) — KLA Corporation FY2025 Annual Report (Form 10-K), filed with the SEC95% source confidence
- Substack (Robert Castellano) — KLA holds near-monopoly share in semiconductor process control68% source confidence
- investingLive — US orders chip equipment companies to stop shipments to China's second-largest chipmaker55% source confidence
- IndexBox / KLA March quarter 2026 earnings — KLA's March quarter 2026 revenue rises 11% as advanced packaging process control nears $1B76% source confidence
Insider Filing Activity
Counts filing frequency only — transaction direction/size wasn't parseable from the sampled filings · sourced from SEC EDGAR · as of Jul 28, 2026
Dependency Map
What KLA Corporation depends on below, and who depends on KLA Corporation above — click any node to make it the new center, 3 levels deep.
Connection type
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The Story So Far (last 6 months)
Auto-generated from this entity's dated milestones, relationship updates, and sourced evidence — not AI-written, just sorted.
KLA Corporation's Timeline
A sourced, dated history of KLA Corporation's key moments — founding to present.
Jan 1976 · Founded
KLA Corporation was founded, later becoming a near-monopoly process-control equipment maker checking wafers at every leading-edge fab.
Jan 2026 · March-quarter revenue up 11%
KLA reported fiscal Q3 2026 revenue of $3.415 billion, up 11% year-over-year, with advanced packaging process control revenue projected to nearly double to roughly $1 billion in 2026.
Apr 2026 · US halts chip tool exports to Hua Hong, hits equipment-maker stocks
The US Commerce Department ordered Applied Materials, Lam Research and KLA to stop shipping certain advanced chipmaking tools to Hua Hong, China's second-largest chipmaker, as Hua Hong and Huali Microelectronics reportedly neared a new 7nm fab in Shanghai; KLA shares fell about 4.7% on the news alongside sector-wide declines.