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Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown. Here's the KLA Corporation script.
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**ALEX:** Welcome to Beta Finch, your AI-powered earnings breakdown of the numbers that move markets. I'm Alex.
**JORDAN:** And I'm Jordan. Today we're digging into KLA Corporation's June quarter fiscal 2026 results — and Alex, this one's got some pretty eye-popping AI-infrastructure numbers in it.
**ALEX:** It really does. But before we get into it — quick disclaimer. This podcast is AI-generated content for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing we discuss should be considered investment advice. Always do your own research and consult a qualified financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
**JORDAN:** Good housekeeping. Okay, let's talk numbers. KLA makes process control and inspection equipment for semiconductor fabs — basically the tools that check whether chips are being made correctly. And this quarter, revenue hit a record $3.66 billion, up 7% sequentially and 15% year-over-year.
**ALEX:** And that beat the midpoint of their own guidance. Non-GAAP EPS came in at $1.50, GAAP EPS at $1.04 — both at the high end of their ranges. Oh, and worth flagging for anyone checking historical charts: KLA did a 10-for-1 stock split effective June 11th, so all these per-share numbers are split-adjusted.
**JORDAN:** Good catch, because that trips people up. Gross margin was 62.4%, also above guidance, and operating margin was a very healthy 43.7%. Free cash flow came in at $817 million, and they returned $876 million to shareholders — split between buybacks and dividends.
**ALEX:** So strong quarter across the board. But honestly, the guidance and the forward commentary is where this call gets interesting. CEO Rick Wallace and CFO Bren Higgins were pretty emphatic that momentum is accelerating, not just holding steady.
**JORDAN:** Right, they raised their wafer fab equipment — WFE — market outlook for all of 2026 to roughly $150 billion, up from a prior $140 billion-plus estimate. That's the fourth time this year they've raised that number.
**ALEX:** Fourth time. And management said they expect KLA's second half of calendar 2026 revenue to grow about 20% over the first half. September quarter guidance alone is for $4 billion in revenue, plus or minus $200 million — that's another double-digit sequential jump.
**JORDAN:** The driver behind all of this is AI infrastructure — hyperscale data center buildout, more complex chip designs, rising high-bandwidth memory adoption, and advanced packaging. Management basically said every one of those trends increases "process control intensity," meaning more of KLA's tools are needed per wafer.
**ALEX:** The advanced packaging story stood out to me. They now expect that business to hit about $1.1 billion in calendar 2026, growth of more than 70% year-over-year — nearly double the growth rate of the packaging market itself. That's a big upward revision from their earlier high-50s percent estimate.
**JORDAN:** And that ties back to the Orbotech acquisition from 2019 — Rick called it out directly, saying the thesis around rising chip-package value is really playing out now. Combined with their specialty semiconductor and PCB businesses, that whole segment is expected to grow over 25% this year.
**ALEX:** Services was another bright spot — $820 million in revenue, up 17% year-over-year. And in the Q&A, Bren mentioned services should accelerate toward the high end of their 13-15% long-term target range next year, since 80% of that revenue is contract-based, which gives nice visibility.
**JORDAN:** Speaking of Q&A, there were some great exchanges. One analyst pushed hard on gross margins, given memory pricing headwinds — Bren estimated that's costing them over 100 basis points right now, and said that pressure likely continues into 2027. But he still expects ma
This episode includes AI-generated content.
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2026/07/297 分