LAM RESEARCH CORP files 10-Q: quarterly report (10-Q)

For a full understanding of our financial position and results of operations for the three and nine months ended March 29, 2026, and the related Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations below, you should also read the Condensed Consolidated Financial Statements and notes presented in this Form 10-Q and the financial statements and notes in our annual report on form 10-K for the year ended June 29, 2025 (our “2025 Form 10-K”).

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Lam Research Corporation is a global supplier of innovative wafer fabrication equipment and services to the semiconductor industry. We have built a strong global presence with core competencies in areas like nanoscale manufacturing enablement, chemistry, plasma and fluidics, advanced systems engineering, and a broad range of operational disciplines. Our products and services are designed to help our customers build smaller and better performing devices that are used in a variety of electronic products, including mobile phones, personal computers, cloud and enterprise servers, wearables, automotive vehicles, and data storage devices.

Our customer base includes leading semiconductor memory, foundry, and integrated device manufacturers that make products such as non-volatile memory, dynamic random-access memory, and logic devices. Their continued success is part of our commitment to driving semiconductor breakthroughs that define the next generation. Our core technical competency is integrating hardware, process, materials, software, and process control, enabling results on the wafer.

Semiconductor manufacturing, our customers’ business, involves the fabrication of multiple dies or integrated circuits on a wafer. This involves the repetition of a set of core processes and can require hundreds of individual steps. Fabricating these devices requires a sequence of highly sophisticated process technologies to integrate an increasing array of new materials with precise control at the atomic scale. Along with meeting technical requirements, wafer processing equipment must deliver high productivity and be cost-effective.

Demand from cloud computing, artificial intelligence (“AI”), 5G, the Internet of Things, and other markets is driving the need for increasingly powerful and cost-efficient semiconductors. At the same time, there are growing technical challenges with traditional two-dimensional scaling. These trends are driving significant inflections in semiconductor manufacturing, such as the increasing importance of vertical scaling strategies like three-dimensional architecture as well as multiple patterning to enable shrinks.

We believe we are in a strong position with our leadership and expertise in deposition, etch, and clean markets to facilitate some of the most significant innovations in semiconductor device manufacturing. Our Customer Support Business Group provides products and services to maximize installed equipment performance, predictability, and operational efficiency. Several factors create opportunities for sustainable differentiation for us: (i) our focus on research and development, with several ongoing programs relating to sustaining engineering, product and process development, and concept and feasibility; (ii) our ability to effectively leverage cycles of learning from our broad installed base; (iii) our collaborative focus with semi-ecosystem partners, including our close-to-customer focus; (iv) our ability to identify and invest in the breadth of our product portfolio to meet technology inflections; and (v) our focus on delivering our multi-product solutions with a goal to enhance the value of Lam’s solutions to our customers.

Wafer fabrication equipment investments were strong in the 2025 calendar year, and we believe there will be continued growth in 2026 with the AI market driving higher semiconductor industry spending across both the memory and non-memory market segments. In the short term, volatility in the semiconductor industry environment from trade restrictions, tariffs, as well as other direct and indirect risks and uncertainties discussed in Part II, Item 1A, “ Risk Factors, ” have had, and in the future may have, a negative impact on our revenue and operating margin. Over the longer term, we believe that secular demand for semiconductors, combined with technology inflections in our industry, including 3D device scaling, multiple patterning, process flow, and advanced packaging chip integration, will drive sustainable growth and lead to an increase in the served available market for our products and services in the deposition, etch, and clean businesses.

The following table summarizes certain key financial information for the periods indicated below:

In the March 2026 quarter, revenue increased 9% compared to the three months ended December 28, 2025 (the “December 2025 quarter”), driven by an increase in systems revenue primarily resulting from increased customer investments in the DRAM market segment as well as an increase in customer support-related revenue mainly tied to our expanding installed base and higher spares, upgrades and services revenue, partially offset by decreased customer spend on non-leading-edge equipment. T he deferred revenue balance was $2.22 billion at the end of the March 2026 quarter, down slightly relative to the balance at the end of the December 2025 quarter of $2.25 billion. The decrease in the deferred revenue balance included approximately $300 million of decreases in customer down payments that were largely offset by increases across other components of deferred revenue balance associated with growing business levels.

We aim to balance the requirements of our customers with the availability of resources, as well as performance to our operational and financial objectives. As a result, from time to time, we exercise discretion and judgment as to the timing and prioritization of manufacturing and deliveries of products, which has impacted, including in the current fiscal year, and may in the future impact, the timing of revenue recognition with respect to such products.

The increase in gross margin as a percentage of revenue in the March 2026 quarter compared to the December 2025 quarter was primarily a result of improved factory efficiencies. The increase in operating expenses in the March 2026 quarter compared to the December 2025 quarter wa s primarily driven by an increase in employee-related costs as a result of beginning of calendar year seasonality and higher headcount, as well as higher costs associated with workforce optimization, partially offset by lower elective deferred compensation plan-related costs and decreased outside service spend.