Lam Research

David Lam, who had planned to build his own prototype plasma-etching system, founded Lam Research in 1980. The company went public in 1984, raising $20 million, and David Lam left the company in 1985.⁠[1]

In 1992, Roger Emerick was recruited as president. The company launched the TCP 9400 polysilicon etch system, its first product to integrate its patented Transformer Coupled Plasma (TCP) technology, and in 1993 Lam Research became the world’s largest producer of etch equipment.⁠[2]

In March 1997, Lam Research merged with OnTrak Systems, and OnTrak’s chairman and chief executive officer, James Bagley, took the helm at Lam Research.⁠[1]

Martin Anstice became president and chief executive officer of Lam Research in January 2012.⁠[3]

On May 10, 2012, S&P Indices announced that, in view of Lam Research’s pending acquisition of Novellus Systems, Lam Research would replace Novellus in the S&P 500S&P 500The S&P 500 is a U.S. large-cap equity index compiled by S&P Dow Jones Indices. It includes 500 leading companies, covers about 80% of available market capitalization and is described by S&P DJI as “widely regarded as the best single gauge of large-cap U.S. equities.”Open the full entry, effective after the close of trading on a date to be announced. Royal Gold would take Lam Research’s place in the S&P MidCap 400.⁠[4]

On June 4, 2012, Lam Research completed its merger with Novellus Systems, based in San Jose, California. Novellus shareholders received 1.125 Lam Research shares for each Novellus share, valuing the transaction at $40.48875 per share. Lam Research stockholders held about 57 percent of the combined company and former Novellus shareholders about 43 percent, and four former Novellus directors joined Lam Research’s board.⁠[5]

On October 21, 2015, Lam Research announced an agreement to combine with KLA-Tencor. Each KLA-Tencor share would receive the economic equivalent of $32.00 in cash and 0.5 of a Lam Research share, for about $10.6 billion in equity value, and KLA-Tencor stockholders would own about 32% of the combined company. Martin Anstice said, “This is the right time for the right combination in our industry.”⁠[6]

To finance the deal, Lam Research obtained commitments for a senior unsecured term loan facility of up to $1.53 billion and issued senior notes in June 2016, $1.6 billion of which had to be redeemed if the acquisition was not completed by December 30, 2016.⁠[3]

On October 5, 2016, after the U.S. Department of Justice said it would not continue with a consent decree the parties had been negotiating, the two companies agreed to terminate the merger agreement. No termination fees were payable by either party.⁠[7]

On December 5, 2018, Martin Anstice resigned as chief executive officer, without severance benefits, as the company investigated allegations of misconduct in the workplace. The company said the alleged conduct did not involve financial misconduct. Tim Archer was named president and chief executive officer effective immediately.⁠[8]

In October 2022, new U.S. rules required American companies to obtain a license before supplying Chinese chipmakers with equipment that can produce relatively advanced chips. On October 19, Lam Research, which got about 30% of its business from China, projected a $2 billion to $2.5 billion revenue hit in 2023.⁠[9]

Lam Research’s ten-for-one forward stock split took effect at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on October 2, 2024, raising its authorized common stock from 400 million to 4 billion shares. The shares were expected to begin trading on a split-adjusted basis at the market open on October 3, 2024, under the existing symbol LRCX.⁠[10]

The Affiliates Rule of the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) took effect on September 29, 2025, extending export controls to entities owned 50% or more by parties on the Entity List or the Military End-User List.⁠[11]

On an earnings call on October 22, 2025, Archer said the company expected the rule to reduce December-quarter revenue by roughly $200 million and calendar 2026 revenue by approximately $600 million. Revenue for the September 2025 quarter reached a record $5.3 billion, with China at 43%.⁠[12]

In early November 2025, the White House announced that BIS would suspend the rule for one year, from November 10, 2025, until November 10, 2026.⁠[11]

Its products include deposition, etch and clean systems. As of August 4, 2026, it had approximately 23,300 regular full-time employees. U.S. export controls on China include entity listings of several customers, restricting equipment and spare-parts sales.⁠[13]

In fiscal 2026, ended June 28, 2026, Lam Research had revenue of $23.23 billion (fiscal 2025: $18.44 billion), GAAP net income of $7.27 billion (fiscal 2025: $5.36 billion) and diluted earnings per share of $5.76 (fiscal 2025: $4.15). June-quarter revenue was a record $6.72 billion, with China at 26%.⁠[14]