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 does KLA do?

Who depends on KLA

TSMC, the world's largest foundry, is KLA's biggest customer, running its tools to protect yields on leading-edge nodes. Samsung Electronics uses KLA across its memory and foundry fabs, and Intel relies on it for both its own chips and its growing foundry business. On the memory side, SK hynix and Micron Technology depend on KLA to catch defects in DRAM, NAND, and HBM production, and GlobalFoundries applies the same tools across its specialty and mature nodes.

What KLA depends on

KLA's own tools are precision instruments, and the company doesn't build every part of them in-house. Carl Zeiss SMT, the German optics maker, supplies the ultra-precise lenses at the heart of KLA's optical inspection systems. Coherent Corp. provides the specialized lasers and optical components that power KLA's light sources, and Hamamatsu Photonics supplies the high-sensitivity photodetectors that catch the actual defects.

Below that sit the subsystem makers: MKS Instruments for photonics and vacuum components, for precision power delivery, and for the gas-delivery modules and outsourced assemblies that go inside the finished machine.