What Is KLA Corporation? The Company That Catches Chip Defects

KLA doesn't make chips or the machines that build them. It makes the tools that find defects too small to see, and roughly every major fab in the world depends on it. Here's what KLA does and who it depends on.

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Aug 9, 2026 · 2 min read

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Search for "KLA" and the results skew toward stock tickers and one-line descriptions that don't say much. KLA Corporation makes the inspection and metrology systems that check semiconductor wafers for defects during production, and it holds roughly 55% of that market. If a fab can't see its own defects, it can't fix its yields, which is why KLA's customer list reads like a roster of every major chipmaker on earth.

The short answer

KLA sits in a specific spot in the chip supply chain:

• What it makes: process-control, inspection, and metrology tools that catch nanometer-scale defects on wafers and reticles.
• Who buys it: TSMC, Samsung, Intel, SK hynix, Micron, and GlobalFoundries all run KLA tools on their production lines.
• Who supplies KLA: precision optics from Carl Zeiss SMT, lasers from Coherent, photonics from Hamamatsu, and subsystems from MKS Instruments, Advanced Energy, and Ultra Clean Holdings.

The full interactive map is on KLA's supply chain page.

What KLA actually does

Building a modern chip means printing features a few nanometers wide, repeated across billions of transistors. At that scale, a single misplaced particle can ruin a die. KLA's tools scan wafers and photomasks throughout the manufacturing process, catching those defects before they turn into a wasted batch. That's the difference between a fab running at high yield and one bleeding money on scrapped wafers, which is why KLA's process-control tools are treated as essential rather than optional.