KLA CORP

Other than the risk factor listed below, there have been no material changes in our risk factors since our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2026. Refer to “Risk Factors” contained in Part I Item 1A of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for our fiscal year ended June 30, 2026 for a complete description of our risk factors. Any of these risks, as well as risks unknown to us or that we believe are currently immaterial, could have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

Our success is dependent in part on our technology and other proprietary rights. If we are unable to maintain our lead or protect our proprietary technology, we may lose valuable assets.

Our success is dependent, in part, on our technology and other proprietary rights. We own various U.S. and international patents and have additional pending patent applications relating to some of our products and technologies. The process of seeking patent protection is lengthy and expensive, and we cannot be certain that pending or future applications will actually result in issued patents or that issued patents will be of sufficient scope or strength to provide meaningful protection or commercial advantage to us. Other companies and individuals, including our larger competitors, may develop technologies and obtain patents relating to our business that are similar or superior to our technology or may design around the patents we own, which may adversely affect our business. In addition, we at times engage in collaborative technology development efforts with our customers and suppliers, and these collaborations may constitute a key component of certain of our ongoing technology and product R&D projects. The termination of any such collaboration, or delays caused by disputes or other unanticipated challenges that may arise in connection with any such collaboration, could significantly impair our R&D efforts, which could have a material adverse impact on our business and operations.

We also maintain trademarks on certain of our products and services and claim copyright protection for certain proprietary software and documentation. However, we can give no assurance that our trademarks and copyrights will be upheld or successfully deter infringement by third parties.

While patent, copyright and trademark protection for our IP is important, we believe our future success in highly dynamic markets is most dependent upon the technical competence and creative skills of our personnel. We attempt to protect our trade secrets and other proprietary information through confidentiality and other agreements with our customers, suppliers, employees and consultants and through other security measures. We also maintain exclusive and non-exclusive licenses with third parties for strategic technology used in certain products. However, these employees, consultants and third parties may breach these agreements, and we may not have adequate remedies for wrongdoing. We also try to control access to and distribution of our technology and proprietary information. Despite our efforts, internal or external parties, including state actors, may attempt to copy, disclose, obtain, reverse engineer, decompile or otherwise misappropriate our IP or technology, including through the use of AI or machine learning technologies. Advances in AI and machine learning technologies may make policing unauthorized use of our IP and technology more difficult to detect, and if third parties are able to replicate our technologies, our competitors may be able to take advantage of our R&D efforts to develop competing products. In addition, former employees may seek employment with our customers, suppliers or competitors and there can be no assurance that the confidential nature of our proprietary information will be maintained in the course of such future employment. In addition, the laws of certain territories in which we develop, manufacture or sell our products may not protect our IP rights to the same extent as the laws of the U.S. In any event, the extent to which we can protect our trade secrets through the use of confidentiality agreements is limited, and our success will depend to a significant extent on our ability to innovate ahead of our competitors.