Semiconductor Equipment Stocks Powering the AI Chip Manufacturing Boom: Etching

5 hours ago 3

Jorge Aragon

Wed, May 20, 2026 astatine 10:55 AM CDT 8 min read

Quick Read

  • Lam Research (LRCX) reported Q1 FY26 gross of $5.84B with 50% gross margins and 35% operating margins, with adjacent 4th guidance of $6.6B oregon 13% QoQ growth, driven by captious etching instrumentality for precocious semiconductor nodes from TSMC, Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron. The company’s Akara enactment and solid-state plasma exertion alteration next-generation transistor architectures including CFET (expected 2030 production) and 3D representation structures similar HBM and 3D NAND.

  • AI buildout is driving semiconductor manufacturing complexity and capex, with Wafer Fab Equipment expenditure expected to scope $140B successful FY26 (27% YoY growth), positioning Lam Research arsenic a captious enabler of the industry’s modulation from 2D to 3D spot architectures crossed logic, memory, and precocious packaging.

  • The expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 stocks and Lam Research wasn't 1 of them. Get them present FREE.

The semiconductor manufacture is 1 of the astir precocious and analyzable successful the world. The semiconductor manufacture relies connected highly specialized proviso chains and manufacturing equipment. This ecosystem becomes highly analyzable due to the fact that precocious spot manufacturing requires galore process steps. The process involves companies from each implicit the world. Since the assemblage requires atomic precision, the semiconductor instrumentality companies specialized successful lone a fewer manufacturing steps. Those companies continuously put successful their R&D departments to support up with Moore’s instrumentality advances. The astir dynamic segments are tooling and manufacturing instrumentality for the manufacturing facilities. The instrumentality tin beryllium categorized into respective subsectors. The astir applicable are etching, deposition, and lithography equipment. The companies progressive successful these processes are not existent monopolies, but they payment from beardown competitory moats, and constricted contention owed to the complexity and sophistication of their technology.

Etching

Etching is the process of engraving the analyzable lithographic designs into the silicon wafer. Traditionally, etching techniques relied connected chemic processes, but the modular is present utilizing plasma arsenic the etchant. Normally, engineers spot the patterns to beryllium removed connected the wafer utilizing a lithographic disguise implicit a photoresist. Then, the etchant removes the selected photoresist worldly from the wafer.

The expert who called NVIDIA successful 2010 conscionable named his apical 10 stocks and Lam Research wasn't 1 of them. Get them present FREE.

Lam Research (LRCX)

Lam is simply a planetary person successful wafer fabrication instrumentality and services, and precocious foundries usage its machinery extensively. Most of its clients are located successful Asia. In fact, TSMC, Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron, each usage Lam Research equipment. Lam Research’s instrumentality centers astir the etching processes but besides interacts with antithetic layers of the semiconductor manufacturing process, including deposition, cleaning and electroplating. Lam Research’s machinery supports existent and aboriginal transistor architectures. For instance, Its Akara enactment is designed to surpass existent manufacture etching needs. It is designed with aboriginal architectures successful mind, including the aboriginal adoption of the CFET transistor node architecture, expected to spell into accumulation by 2030. Moreover, the institution besides provides precocious solutions for the representation manufacture and multichip architectures, including TSV and precocious high-aspect-ratio etching utilized by HBM representation and 3D NAND.

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