Semiconductors
The Machines That Make Chips
From $300M lithography tools to test systems
5 articles
Orders Keep Rising Every Month — So Tokyo Electron Decided to Halve Equipment Ramp-Up Time
Tokyo Electron CEO Toshiki Kawai told Nikkei the company will progressively halve the time it takes to bring its chipmaking equipment online at customer fabs, starting with new models. With AI investment accelerating, nearly every customer is asking for earlier delivery. The bottleneck in the equipment industry has shifted from how fast tools are built to how fast they are installed.
記事を読む Company Deep Dive: AdvantestAdvantest: The Final Test Every AI Chip and HBM Stack Must Pass Before Shipping
NVIDIA's AI GPUs and the HBM stacks beside them all go through one last gate before shipping: a tester, and more often than not it is made by Advantest. With about 58% of the global ATE market, the Japanese company is the world's largest maker of semiconductor test equipment. This deep dive covers its revenue mix, technological moat, supply-chain position and competitive structure, using annual-report and IR figures.
記事を読む Company Deep Dive: DISCODISCO's Quiet Monopoly: The Japanese Company That Cuts, Grinds and Polishes the World's Chips
Every wafer on Earth has to be ground thin and diced into chips before it becomes a product — and one Japanese company controls 70-80% of the machines that do it. DISCO's dicing saws and grinders, paired with the diamond blades they consume, form one of the strongest niche monopolies in semiconductors. This deep dive covers its equipment-plus-consumables model, its role in back-end processing, and a five-forces view of its moat.
記事を読む Company Deep Dive: Tokyo ElectronTokyo Electron Controls ~90% of the Coater/Developer Market — Inside Japan's Largest Chip Equipment Maker
Tokyo Electron (TEL) holds roughly 90% of the global coater/developer market — nearly 100% for EUV — and ranks among the top vendors in etch, deposition and cleaning. This deep dive maps where the world's No. 4 equipment maker sits in the chip supply chain, how its business is structured, and where its competitive moat and risks lie.
記事を読む Semiconductor Equipment / JapanJapan's Semiconductor Equipment Makers, Mapped: The Companies No Chip Fab Can Run Without
Advanced chip production lines are packed with Japanese machines and materials. Tokyo Electron, DISCO, Advantest and their peers each dominate a specific process step — this map shows exactly who controls what, with market shares and revenue.
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