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FormFactor makes the special probe cards and measurement tools that chipmakers use to test chips while they are still on the silicon wafer, before they get cut apart and packaged.
FormFactor sells the equipment that chipmakers use to check their work. Before a silicon wafer is sliced into individual chips, tiny probes need to touch each chip and run electrical tests. FormFactor makes those probe cards — delicate, customized pieces of hardware that connect test machines to the microscopic circuits on a wafer. If a chip fails, you want to know before you spend money packaging it.
The business splits into two main parts. The larger one is probe cards, sold mostly to makers of memory chips and to foundries that manufacture logic chips for other companies. The smaller part sells measurement systems — lab equipment that researchers and manufacturers use to study materials and check semiconductor processes. Customers pay for precision: as chips shrink and get more complex, the probe cards must keep up, and a bad card means bad data or damaged wafers. FormFactor's edge comes from being deeply embedded with the big chipmakers. Probe cards are custom-designed for each chip design, so once FormFactor wins a program, the relationship tends to stick. That also makes it vulnerable: memory is a notoriously boom-and-bust market, and when memory makers cut spending, FormFactor feels it fast. The company has been riding the AI boom, though, because advanced chips for AI need more testing, not less.
The company is headquartered in Livermore, California, and it has grown partly by acquisition — buying up rival probe card makers and measurement businesses over the years. It generates real cash, which it has used to fund those deals and buy back stock. The simple version: FormFactor sells the quality-control step that chipmakers cannot skip, and it gets paid more as chips get harder to make.
Saved answer · last researched 21 Oct 2026