1. ASML for chip packaging and assembly.

2. Applied Materials for semiconductor packaging.

• Wire Bonders: Equipment used for interconnecting semiconductor devices to their packages using fine wires.
• Die Attach Equipment: Machines designed for precisely picking and placing semiconductor dies onto various substrates.
• Advanced Packaging Equipment: Solutions for complex packaging processes such as flip-chip, thermal compression bonding (TCB), and hybrid bonding.
• Wedge Bonders: Specialized wire bonding equipment primarily used for power semiconductor devices and larger wire applications.
• Mini/Micro LED Solutions: Equipment and processes for the high-precision assembly and testing of mini and micro LED components for advanced displays.
• Aftermarket Parts and Services: Provision of spare parts, consumables, technical support, maintenance, and training for their installed equipment base.

Kulicke & Soffa Industries (KLIC) sells primarily to other companies (B2B) within the semiconductor manufacturing industry.

The company provides equipment, tools, and materials for semiconductor assembly and advanced packaging. Its customer base primarily consists of:

• Outsourced Semiconductor Assembly and Test (OSAT) companies
• Integrated Device Manufacturers (IDMs)
• Advanced packaging houses
• Automotive electronics manufacturers
• LED manufacturers

While Kulicke & Soffa Industries' public filings, such as its Form 10-K, indicate a concentration of revenue from a limited number of customers, the company does not publicly disclose the specific names of these major customers.

For example, in its Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2023, Kulicke & Soffa Industries stated that two customers each accounted for 10% of its net revenues. However, the names of these customers were not specified in the filing.

Lester Wong, Interim CEO and Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer

Lester Wong has served as Kulicke & Soffa's Chief Financial Officer since December 2018 and was promoted to Executive Vice President in January 2022. He joined the company in September 2011 as General Counsel & Senior Vice President, Legal Affairs. Mr. Wong possesses over 20 years of legal leadership experience with U.S. listed and Asian-based companies, including managing public reporting, compliance, litigation, and M&A activities. He previously held roles as General Counsel of Gigamedia Limited and Senior Legal Counsel at CDC Corporation, both NASDAQ-listed companies. Mr. Wong earned his Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of British Columbia and a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree from Western University. Effective October 28, 2025, Mr. Wong was appointed Interim CEO while retaining his CFO responsibilities, as Dr. Fusen Chen transitions to retirement.

Fusen Chen, President and Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Fusen Chen was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Kulicke & Soffa on October 31, 2016, and was elected to the Board of Directors on October 3, 2016. He is set to retire from his position effective December 1, 2025, for health reasons. Before joining K&S, Dr. Chen was the President and CEO of Mattson Technology, Inc., where he successfully reversed years of losses into significant revenue growth and sustained profitability. His career also includes serving as an Executive Vice President at Novellus Systems, overseeing all semiconductor business units, and as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Novellus, responsible for the company's technology strategy. Earlier, he spent 10 years at Applied Materials, most recently as Group Vice President and General Manager for the company's copper physical vapor deposition and interconnect product business group. He also worked at LSI Logic and SGS-Thomson Microelectronics. Dr. Chen holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the State University of New York and a B.S. in Materials Science and Engineering from Tsing Hua University (Hsinchu, Taiwan).

Chan Pin Chong, Executive Vice President & General Manager, Products & Solutions

Chan Pin Chong was appointed Executive Vice President & General Manager, K&S' Products and Solutions in December 2019. He joined Kulicke & Soffa in 2014 as Vice President of the Wedge Bonders business unit, where he is credited with turning around the business and driving growth by diversifying into the battery bonding market. Mr. Chong is a veteran in the technology industry with over 24 years of engineering and operations experience within the semiconductor and electronics sectors.

Nelson Wong, Senior Vice President, Global Sales and Global Supply Chain

Nelson Wong serves as the Senior Vice President, Global Sales and Global Supply Chain at Kulicke & Soffa. He is also noted as the Senior Vice President of the Ball Bonder Business Unit.

Robert Chylak, Senior Vice President, Central Engineering and Chief Technology Officer

Robert Chylak holds the position of Senior Vice President, Central Engineering and Chief Technology Officer at Kulicke & Soffa.

The key risks to Kulicke & Soffa Industries (KLIC) are:

1. High Dependence on Cyclical Semiconductor Industry Market Dynamics and Geopolitical/Trade Policy Dependency: Kulicke & Soffa's revenue is significantly exposed to the cyclical nature of the semiconductor industry, leading to considerable revenue volatility. A substantial portion of the company's revenue originates from outside the U.S., with a significant percentage from Asia-Pacific markets, particularly China. This global exposure makes the company vulnerable to international trade complexities, geopolitical disruptions, potential tariffs, and foreign exchange fluctuations. In fiscal year 2025, approximately 90.5% of net revenue came from shipments outside the U.S., with 53.5% from customers headquartered in China.
2. Operational Risk from Strategic Cessation: The company is currently winding down its Electronics Assembly equipment business to concentrate on its core semiconductor assembly operations. This strategic shift, while aiming for long-term benefits, introduces short-term operational uncertainties, including the potential for unforeseen expenses and delays during the wind-down process, which could adversely affect the company's financial condition.
3. Potential Challenges in Maintaining Continuous Technological Leadership: As a technology company operating in a rapidly evolving semiconductor equipment sector, Kulicke & Soffa faces a continuous risk of technology obsolescence and disruption. Sustaining its competitive advantage necessitates consistent and sufficient investment in research and development to maintain technological leadership.

The clear emerging threat to Kulicke & Soffa Industries (KLIC) is the rapid adoption and increasing dominance of advanced wafer-level and die-level direct bonding technologies, particularly hybrid bonding, for high-performance semiconductor devices.

Hybrid bonding enables direct electrical and mechanical interconnection between wafers or dies, bypassing the need for traditional package-level assembly processes such as wire bonding or micro-bump-based flip-chip attachment for certain critical interfaces. While KLIC is a leader in traditional wire bonding and is expanding its portfolio in other advanced packaging areas like thermo-compression bonding (TCB) and flip-chip, the widespread adoption of hybrid bonding for high-density, high-bandwidth applications (e.g., 3D NAND, HBM, advanced logic) represents a fundamental shift in semiconductor manufacturing that could erode demand for KLIC's core equipment in these high-growth segments.

This paradigm shift is akin to how streaming services threatened physical media rentals, by offering a fundamentally different and often superior method of delivery for a significant portion of the market.

Kulicke & Soffa Industries (KLIC) operates in several key markets within the semiconductor and electronics assembly industries. The addressable markets for their main products and services are as follows:

• Wire Bonding Equipment (Global): The global wire bonder equipment market was valued at approximately $902.5 million in 2024 and is projected to reach $1,906.63 million by 2032, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.8% from 2025 to 2032. Another estimate places the global wire bonder equipment market at $1.53 billion in 2024, expected to grow to $1.62 billion in 2025 and $2.47 billion by 2032, at a CAGR of 6.13%. The broader wire bonding market (which includes equipment, services and materials) is projected to reach $8.26 billion by 2035.
  • Ball Bonder Machine Market (Global): The global ball bonder machine market was valued at approximately $1.103 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach $1.456 billion by 2029, growing at a CAGR of 4.04% from 2023 to 2029.
  • Wire Wedge Bonder Equipment Market (Global): This market was valued at $74.6 million in 2024 and is projected to grow from $77.0 million in 2025 to $92.8 million by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 3.2%.
• Advanced Packaging Market (Global): The global advanced packaging market was valued at $48.5 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach $119.4 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 10.6% from 2024 to 2032. Asia Pacific dominated this market, holding a 59.09% share in 2024. The market is also expected to reach around $55.0 billion by 2030, with a CAGR of 5.7% from 2025 to 2030.
• Dispense Equipment Market (Global): The total available dispense market, including both semiconductor and electronics assembly opportunities, is projected to be $2.6 billion in calendar year 2026.

1. Recovery in Core Ball and Wedge Bonding Markets: The company anticipates an eventual return to incremental capacity growth in its core Ball and Wedge bonding markets. This recovery is expected to be fueled by coordinated improvements within the general semiconductor and automotive/industrial end markets.
2. Growing Adoption of Advanced Packaging Solutions (FTC and TCB): Kulicke & Soffa is heavily invested in advanced packaging solutions, particularly Fluxless Thermo-Compression (FTC) and Thermo-Compression Bonding (TCB). These technologies are crucial for next-generation memory and logic applications, driven by the expansion of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and connected devices. The TCB business is projected to grow by 40-50% sequentially in fiscal year 2025 due to increasing adoption in leading-edge compute, optical, communications, and industrial sectors. The company has secured multiple orders for its TCB solutions, specifically for Silicon Photonics (SiPh) based Co-Packaged Optics (CPO) applications in high-bandwidth networking transceivers, with expectations for further CPO orders in fiscal years 2024 and 2025.
3. Launch and Expansion of New Vertical Wire Solutions: The introduction of new vertical wire solutions, such as ATPremier MEM PLUS, is expected to be a significant growth driver. This wafer-level packaging solution utilizes innovative vertical wire technology to address emerging advanced memory applications, particularly for high-volume, at-the-edge AI applications that demand transistor-dense DRAM and NAND assembly.
4. Expansion of Advanced Dispense Portfolio: Kulicke & Soffa's growing Advanced Dispense portfolio of solutions is set to increase its market potential across various long-term technology transitions.
5. Entry into New Markets with Battery Assembly Solutions: The company foresees ongoing market adoption of its emerging battery assembly solutions, alongside its FTC and Vertical Fan-Out (VFO) technologies, indicating an expansion into new market segments.

Share Repurchases

• Kulicke & Soffa (KLIC) completed its $800 million share repurchase program in December 2024, which had been initiated in fiscal Q4 2017. Under this program, approximately 22.7 million shares were repurchased at an average price of $35.25 per share.
• A new $300 million share repurchase program was authorized in November 2024, set to begin after the completion of the prior program.
• Annual share repurchases amounted to $150.791 million in fiscal year 2024, $69.21 million in fiscal year 2023, and $281.319 million in fiscal year 2022.

Share Issuance

• The number of shares outstanding for Kulicke & Soffa decreased by 4.61% in one year, as of Q3 2025.

Capital Expenditures

• Capital expenditures for the first three quarters of fiscal year 2025 (nine months ending June 28, 2025) totaled $7.560 million.
• During Q1 fiscal year 2025 (ending December 28, 2024), capital expenditures were $2.111 million. In Q3 fiscal year 2025 (ending June 28, 2025), capital expenditures were $2.733 million.
• The company significantly invests in research and development to create innovative solutions for the semiconductor and electronics industries, with a focus on advanced packaging, vertical wire packaging, and advanced dispense technologies.