Semiconductor equipment and materials companies supply the machinery and inputs that make chip manufacturing possible — lithography systems, deposition and etch equipment, wafer substrates and process chemicals. Without these inputs, the entire global chip supply chain stops. This gives leading equipment companies — particularly those in unique or near-monopoly positions like EUV lithography — exceptional pricing power and technology moats that take decades to replicate. Capital expenditure cycles at major chipmakers create revenue lumpiness: when TSMC, Samsung and Intel are building new fabrication facilities, orders accelerate sharply; when capex is digested, equipment demand pauses. The AI infrastructure boom has created a sustained capex cycle at leading-edge fabs that has extended equipment demand well beyond typical cycle duration. Export controls restricting equipment sales to China represent a meaningful geopolitical risk to addressable market size. For investors, the leading equipment makers operate in critical positions in global technology infrastructure with structural long-term demand growth and defensible technology positions.
