Lam Research makes the equipment that deposits and etches the microscopic layers inside a computer chip, two of the most technically demanding steps in semiconductor manufacturing. As chipmakers pack more transistors into smaller spaces and shift to newer architectures, they need increasingly precise deposition and etch tools, which keeps Lam central to the industry's roadmap. Its main customers are the world's largest chip fabricators, so its revenue rises and falls with the broader semiconductor capital spending cycle. Lam competes with Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron in a market with only a handful of credible suppliers, a structure that gives established players durable relationships with fabs.