KLA Strengthens Taiwan Presence, Investing NT$465M in Talent and Technology
The semiconductor industry stands at one of its most pivotal moments. As AI drives explosive demand for computing power, chip manufacturing grows exponentially - die sizes are scaling, tolerances are tightening, and the margin for error has nearly vanished."Explaining the complexity isn't easy," says Ahmad Khan, President of Semiconductor Products and Customers at KLA. "Picture a six-lane highway. A decade ago, you could cruise down the middle, drift left or right - no problem. Today? Same highway, but cars are doing 200 miles per hour with gaps the width of a human hair between them. One wrong move causes catastrophe." This isn't traditional manufacturing anymore, he notes. "It's artisanal work. Exceptionally difficult work."KLA's philosophy in this environment is fundamental yet profoundly important: the company doesn't change the wafer - it observes it. That distinction defines KLA's entire approach. While other equipment modifies, deposits or etches, KLA provides the visibility and insights that allow customers to more tightly manage the complexity of semiconductor manufacturing. In this era where advanced wafers cost $15,000 to over $30,000 each and fabs produce 100,000 monthly, the ability to "see" every nanometer with absolute precision is essential.This capability is important for almost all semiconductor manufacturers, and particularly in Taiwan, which is home to nearly 90% of the world's advanced semiconductor production. The gravity of this ecosystem is one of the key reasons KLA recently opened its new Hsinchu headquarters and its largest Learning and Knowledge Services (LKS) Training Center - a combined US$15.5 million (NT$465 million) investment that underscores the company's commitment to staying close to customers.35 Years Strong: A $15.5 Million Vote of ConfidenceKLA's new Taiwan headquarters in Hsinchu's Tai Yuen Hi-Tech Industrial Park, with WELL certification. Credit:KLAThe investment breaks down to US$10.5 million (NT$315 million) for the new office and US$5 million (NT$150 million) for the training center. Located in Tai Yuen Hi-Tech Industrial Park Phase IX, the headquarters spans 10,000 square meters across two floors, accommodating up to 1,000 employees. The facility earned WELL certification - reflecting KLA's focus on employee wellbeing.KLA first set up shop in Taiwan in 1990. Khan himself has been coming here since those early days. "Back in the '90s, downtown Hsinchu had one hotel. One," he recalls. "The semiconductor sector was just getting started." What he found were engineers trickling back from Motorola, Texas Instruments, and Intel - talented people who returned when Morris Chang and other pioneers decided Taiwan was ready to build fabs."The transformation has been remarkable," Khan says, attributing the growth to what he calls "the Taiwan spirit" - relentless work ethic, intense collaboration, and a willingness to challenge conventions and push for excellence. "This industry is incredibly challenging," Khan acknowledges. "There's nothing harder. You can work yourself to the bone, pour in capital, and still fail completely. But so many of the players in Taiwan have figured it out and continue finding success. We’re honored to be a part of it."Today, KLA Taiwan employs roughly 1,800 people spread across Hsinchu, Kaohsiung, Tainan, Taoyuan, Linkou, and Taichung, with plans to surpass 2,000 by year-end 2026 as customer demand surges.KLA's Largest Training Center: Where Innovation Meets EducationThe LKS Training Center covers 2,950 square meters, including 825 square meters of Class 100 cleanroom, and features 14 classrooms, an AR/VR immersive learning center, four engineering labs, and a chemical analysis lab.With millions of configuration modes, KLA's systems can't simply be switched on. Customers often need PhD- and master's-level engineers who can dial in exact settings for their specific needs. That's one of KLA’s primary motivations for investing in training infrastructure close to customers.The new training center combines classroom instruction, hands-on practice, and immersive simulations to accelerate learning. Beyond training KLA's own people, it is also designed to help customers' fab teams sharpen skills and get to yield faster on new technologies.Building Talent for the Long HaulWhile the larger semiconductor industry continues to face a talent crunch, KLA emphasizes steady hiring and long-term career growth. The company runs disciplined forecasts to determine staffing needs, avoiding boom-and-bust waves.KLA's talent strategy rests on three pillars:Extensive Campus Recruiting: KLA hires substantial numbers of fresh graduates and promotes from within, building loyalty and institutional knowledge over time.80-90% Internal Promotion: The company thinks long-term when hiring, creating clear career paths from customer support teams to application teams and engineering teams . People can climb technical ladders or switch to management based on their strengths.University Partnerships: KLA engineers give tech talks and teach courses at leading local universities. The company sees it as paying forward, training the next generation who'll work across the industry.The company seeks candidates with physics, mechanics, math, and computer science backgrounds. "We're mainly physics folks because we deal in optics, photons, electrons," Khan explains. With the new facilities, KLA Taiwan is actively recruiting positions across application engineering, field service, R&D, customer support, and sales and marketing.Why Process Control Became Make-or-BreakAs die sizes grow and devices get more complex, process control has gone from important to mission critical. Each new node brings tighter design rules, smaller features, and narrower process windows. Customers are printing tinier features, and yield becomes inversely proportional to the smallest printable feature.The stakes are incredibly high, both technologically and financially. When something goes wrong, thousands of wafers stack up behind the problem, with each carrying enormous economic weight.The AI chip challenge compounds the problem: mobile chips packed 20 billion transistors, but today's AI chips contain hundreds of billions of transistors. Die sizes have exploded. The math is brutal - if you have 10 dies per wafer and one fails, you still have nine. But if you only get two giant dies per wafer and one fails, you've lost 50%. All AI chips use massive dies, creating brutal complexity for customers.KLA's comprehensive portfolio - from BBP optical inspection to e-beam platforms to overlay metrology - monitors thousands of parameters across more than 1,000 process steps. If one step fails, yield can very quickly drop to zero.The industry shift is clear: customers are buying significantly more process-control tools because they need yield faster. Khan describes it through a straightforward lens - As semiconductor manufacturing becomes harder, KLA's capabilities become more critical, especially when a single excursion can cost hundreds of millions of dollars.AI Integration and What's NextKhan frames AI not as a trend or fashion, but as an inevitable evolution. After millions of years of biological evolution produced human neural networks - networks that gave humanity its competitive edge - the next step was always going to be artificial neural networks. This wasn't any individual's invention; it was the natural progression of how intelligence develops and scales. The universe, he suggests, essentially selects for the species with the most connected neurons. Now that same principle is extending to how we use machines to amplify our own neural connections.KLA is integrating AI directly into its tools to sharpen defect classification and speed root-cause analysis. The technology also transforms service support: every engineer now essentially walks around with an expert in their pocket. When an engineer encounters a problem, the AI network can instantly surface solutions from decades of collective troubleshooting experience. Ultimately, AI is enabling faster solutions, more productive engineers and more satisfied customers.This matters because KLA's systems use AI, customers build AI chips, and AI is reshaping every part of the manufacturing chain. It's a fundamental transformation, not a passing phase.Looking ahead, KLA is developing panel-based inspection systems (volume production expected around 2028) and high-NA EUV systems. Khan, who's spent about 30 years in the industry, maintains the semiconductor industry hasn't peaked. His reasoning is straightforward: computing demand will always trend upward, not downward. Until the walls aren't made of silicon, there's room to grow.Join the TeamKhan sums up KLA's hiring philosophy simply: maintain a stable plan, partner with universities, train people well, and grow them over time. They become advocates, which brings company success—and through that success, customers succeed.For engineering graduates and professionals interested in joining KLA Taiwan's 1,800-plus team, opportunities span application engineering, R&D, customer support, and sales and marketing. To explore opportunities, you may visit our KLA Careers or follow KLA Taiwan Facebook Fan page.KLA Taiwan values talent development and their long-term career growth, building a young and dynamic team. Credit:KLA
