# What Are Semiconductor Equipment Stocks? > Learn how semiconductor equipment suppliers differ from chipmakers, what this curated stock list covers, and how to read market-cap and return comparisons. Source: MarketCapLens — https://www.marketcaplens.com/learn/what-are-semiconductor-equipment-stocks Updated: 2026-11-11 **Semiconductor equipment stocks**, on MarketCapLens, are U.S.-listed suppliers of equipment used to manufacture, inspect, measure, and test semiconductors. The [live semiconductor equipment stocks comparison](https://www.marketcaplens.com/semiconductor-equipment-stocks) ranks the selected companies by market capitalization and shows their available price and market-cap histories. Semiconductor equipment companies sell the tools used to make, inspect, package, or test chips. They sit upstream of chip designers and manufacturers. Their customers decide when to build factories, add production capacity, or introduce a new manufacturing process. ## Which companies qualify? We select U.S.-listed equipment suppliers whose products support semiconductor fabrication, process control, inspection, metrology, or testing. Chip designers, foundries, and memory manufacturers are separate businesses and are not included merely because they use these tools. Membership is an editorial research selection of companies in the current ranking; combined market cap is company size, not equipment-market revenue. The business roles on the live page explain why each member belongs: - **Lithography:** [ASML (ASML)](https://www.marketcaplens.com/company/ASML). - **Fabrication equipment:** [Applied Materials (AMAT)](https://www.marketcaplens.com/company/AMAT), [Lam Research (LRCX)](https://www.marketcaplens.com/company/LRCX). - **Inspection & process control:** [KLA (KLAC)](https://www.marketcaplens.com/company/KLAC), [Onto Innovation (ONTO)](https://www.marketcaplens.com/company/ONTO). - **Semiconductor test:** [Teradyne (TER)](https://www.marketcaplens.com/company/TER). This is a selected comparison, not an exhaustive worldwide industry directory. The [ranking eligibility rules](https://www.marketcaplens.com/learn/how-the-ranking-works) determine which listed companies appear in the current figures. A company can belong to a Featured list and also appear in its broader [Technology sector ranking](https://www.marketcaplens.com/sectors/technology). The two views answer different questions. ## What drives these businesses? Follow the manufacturing steps: lithography patterns a wafer; deposition adds thin layers of material; etching removes material; inspection finds defects; metrology means measuring features. Test equipment checks whether chips work. These steps are repeated in many layers, rather than forming one simple pass down a production line. New-tool sales depend on factory construction and changes in manufacturing processes. Service, spare parts, and upgrades support equipment already installed. A customer can postpone a new machine while still paying to maintain existing tools, so these revenue streams can move differently. A stronger chip market does not guarantee that orders for every type of equipment rise together. ## What can the ranking leave out? Equipment orders depend on customers’ capital budgets, manufacturing transitions, and export restrictions. Large individual customers can account for a meaningful part of sales. Service and installed-base revenue may behave differently from new tool shipments; a rising chip market does not guarantee steadily rising equipment orders. The largest company is not necessarily the cheapest or the most profitable. The [difference between market cap and share price](https://www.marketcaplens.com/learn/market-cap-vs-stock-price) matters here: a low dollar price per share says little about the value of the whole business. ## How to read the figures and charts Market cap measures the whole company’s equity value. The list’s combined cap adds the current values of members present in the ranking; each company’s weight is its cap divided by that total. The historical stack includes companies when usable history begins, so new listings and share-count changes can move the total as well as prices. It is not the return on a fixed portfolio. Price-performance lines use a common starting date and exclude dividends. A 100% increase doubles the starting price; a 200% increase triples it. The live comparison states its dates, included names, and exclusions. Missing history is not a zero return. See [price return versus total return](https://www.marketcaplens.com/learn/price-return-vs-total-return) for what income changes. The main performance comparison uses companies with a full five-year price history. A newer listing can remain in the current table even when it cannot appear in that chart. Five-year return columns still require the full period. Documented predecessor-company history is excluded where it would misrepresent the current listed business. ## Related comparisons For adjacent businesses, compare [memory and storage stocks](https://www.marketcaplens.com/memory-stocks), [AI supply-chain stocks](https://www.marketcaplens.com/ai-stocks), and [power grid stocks](https://www.marketcaplens.com/power-grid-stocks). A company can qualify for more than one list, so adding their combined market caps would count overlapping companies more than once. The [Featured directory](https://www.marketcaplens.com/featured) explains each list’s scope and links to its live comparison and guide. For general education only. Nothing here is investment advice. ## Frequently asked questions ### What are semiconductor equipment stocks? U.S.-listed suppliers of equipment used to manufacture, inspect, measure, and test semiconductors. ### How is semiconductor equipment different from memory stocks? Equipment suppliers provide manufacturing and testing tools. Memory companies make storage chips and devices. The pages compare different parts of the same supply chain. ### Are ASML and TSMC the same kind of company? No. ASML supplies lithography equipment, while TSMC manufactures chips for customers. A supplier and its customer can have very different business models. ## Sources - [ASML: the chip-manufacturing process](https://www.asml.com/en/technology/all-about-microchips/how-microchips-are-made) - [ASML: company and lithography business](https://www.asml.com/en/company/about-asml) - [KLA: equipment and process-control business](https://ir.kla.com/company-information) - [Onto Innovation: inspection and metrology business](https://ontoinnovation.com/about-us/) References explain the concepts; MarketCapLens supplies the examples and calculator assumptions. See https://www.marketcaplens.com/about for who checks the numbers. ## Related guides - [Memory & storage stocks](https://www.marketcaplens.com/learn/what-are-memory-and-chip-stocks) - [AI stocks](https://www.marketcaplens.com/learn/what-are-ai-stocks)