KLA Corporation, founded in 1975 as KLA Instruments in San Jose, leads the world in process control and yield management for the semiconductor industry. Formed by the 1997 merger of KLA Instruments and Tencor Instruments, it changed its name from KLA-Tencor to KLA Corporation in July 2019. From its Milpitas, California headquarters, it provides wafer inspection, reticle inspection, metrology systems, and computational analytics to clients such as TSMC, Samsung, and Intel. Active in 18 countries, including a new R&D center in Wales (2025) and a second US headquarters in Ann Arbor, Michigan, it employs roughly 15,000 people. With acquisitions such as Orbotech (2019) and SPTS Technologies, KLA supports every phase of wafer, IC, and packaging production and drives innovation in 5G, AI, and automotive electronics, underscored by a $1.32 billion R&D investment in 2024.