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Elekta AB (publ)
Elekta makes radiation therapy machines and software that hospitals use to treat cancer and brain disorders.
Elekta builds the machines and software that hospitals use to aim beams of radiation at tumors. When a cancer patient needs radiation therapy, the treatment often happens on a machine made by Elekta or one of its two big rivals. The company also makes a specialized tool called Leksell Gamma Knife, which focuses radiation on tiny targets in the brain without opening the skull. It sells to hospitals and cancer clinics around the world, and it makes money both from the equipment itself and from the software and service contracts that keep those machines running for years.
The business has two main parts. One is radiation therapy, where Elekta sells linear accelerators — the big machines that rotate around a patient and deliver precise doses of radiation — along with the treatment planning software that tells the machine where to aim. The other is neuroscience, built around the Gamma Knife and related tools for brain surgery and functional disorders. Elekta also provides service and maintenance, which matters a lot: hospitals keep these machines for a decade or more, and they need parts, repairs, software upgrades, and training the whole time. That recurring service revenue is steadier than the up-and-down of selling big machines. The company is headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, and it competes mainly with Varian Medical Systems (now owned by Siemens Healthineers) and Accuray. Hospitals choose Elekta for precision, software that clinicians trust, and the Gamma Knife's reputation for brain work. The hard part is that these are expensive, long sales cycles — a hospital might spend years deciding on a machine — and Elekta's revenue moves with hospital budgets and how many cancer centers are being built or upgraded. Currency swings also matter, since it sells all over the world but reports in Swedish kronor.
Elekta spends heavily on research and development to keep its machines and software competitive, and it has pushed into software and data tools that help clinics plan and deliver treatment more efficiently. It pays a dividend and has used cash to develop new products and make smaller acquisitions. The big question for investors is whether it can grow faster than the slow, budget-driven pace of hospital equipment spending, and whether the Gamma Knife and software can keep it differentiated against much larger rivals. It is a solid, unglamorous business that sits at the intersection of engineering and medicine — the kind of company whose products quietly save lives while the stock mostly tracks hospital capital spending.
Saved answer · last researched 12 Nov 2026