Semiconductors & SEMI Equipment

The average Swiss Semiconductors & SEMI Equipment company is valued at 6.0 - 8.5× EBITDA on a statutory (tax-based) basis and 8.0 - 12.0× EBITDA in actual deal transactions. The spread between statutory and deal multiples represents a key arbitrage opportunity for informed buyers. The current market trend is rising, with an arbitrage gap rated as high. Actual valuations depend heavily on recurring revenue share, customer diversification, management depth, and equipment modernity.

Key valuation drivers include: A genuine world position rather than a national one: VAT Group AG in Sennwald (SG) is the leading global supplier of vacuum valves for semiconductor manufacturing, and reported record Q2 2026 order intake of CHF 500 million, up 101.9% year on year; Order backlog that has more than doubled: VAT closed Q2 2026 with a record CHF 647.9 million backlog against CHF 293.8 million a year earlier, a 121% increase, giving suppliers visibility that most MEM niches lack. Factors that can compress valuations include: Cycle amplitude. Wafer fab equipment turns hard in both directions, and a supplier whose backlog doubled inside twelve months is being valued on a peak that buyers recognise as a peak; Ramp costs land before operating leverage does. VAT's H1 2026 EBITDA margin came in at 29.0%, slightly below the prior year, and free cash flow of CHF 42 million was down 18% year on year while the company added FTEs and expanded its supply chain. Deal multiples typically range from 8.0 - 12.0× EBITDA, but actual prices vary significantly based on customer concentration, management quality, revenue predictability, and geographic reach within Switzerland's 26 cantons.

There is no official count of Swiss semiconductor companies, and any figure presented as one is an estimate. The closest measured statistic is BFS STATENT 2024, published 20 August 2026, which records 2,117 establishments and 119,010 employees in NOGA division 26 "computer, electronic and optical products" — up from 2,099 establishments in 2022, making it the largest Swiss manufacturing division and one of the very few still growing, +6.4% in two years and +9.7% since 2012. The important caveat is that division 26 also contains Swiss watchmaking, and the BFS publishes STATENT only at division level, so no clean Swiss semiconductor count exists. The "~800 firms" figure carried in the February 2026 edition of this report was an unattributed subset estimate. The visible sector is concentrated in a small number of listed groups — VAT Group AG in Sennwald (SG), INFICON HOLDING AG in Bad Ragaz (SG), Comet Holding AG in Wünnewil-Flamatt (FR), Sensirion Holding AG in Stäfa (ZH), u-blox Holding AG in Thalwil (ZH) — plus private equipment builders such as Evatec AG in Wartau (SG) and device operations including EM Microelectronic-Marin SA in Laténa (NE) and STMicroelectronics SA in Plan-les-Ouates (GE). The commercial register is the check on any individual name: there is no Swiss register entry for a CAMTEK operating company, and the only entity registered at Rapperswil-Jona is OSRAM Lighting AG.

Succession in Swiss semiconductor supply is a timing problem before it is a people problem. The demand side is at a cycle high that the listed players have documented precisely: VAT Group AG reported record Q2 2026 order intake of CHF 500 million, up 101.9% year on year, first-half orders of CHF 856 million up 75%, and a record CHF 647.9 million backlog against CHF 293.8 million a year earlier. An owner selling into that has visibility to show a buyer that is rare in Swiss manufacturing. The difficulty is that a sophisticated acquirer will underwrite a wafer fab equipment supplier through the cycle rather than at the top of it, and will discount a valuation anchored on 2026 order intake accordingly. What holds value across the cycle is qualification: a component approved into a customer's tool platform is not requalified casually, and that approval sits with the firm, not with the market. It does, however, sit with specific people — the engineers who carried the qualification campaign and hold the customer relationship. In a cluster this concentrated, those people are also the ones VAT, Evatec, INFICON, Sensirion and u-blox are recruiting while they ramp, and a listed employer adding headcount outbids an owner-managed SME on cash. The consolidation signal is unambiguous: VAT announced the acquisition of Atonarp on 22 July 2026, the same day as its half-year results. The listed players are buying. An owner planning a transition should document qualification history and customer approvals as deliberately as financials, allow two to three years of overlap, and decide whether to sell into this cycle or hold a business whose value swings with it. Deal multiples for the sector typically run 8.0 - 12.0× EBITDA.

Four trends define the sector in 2026: (1) VAT's Q2 2026 order intake doubled year on year — In its ad-hoc announcement of 22 July 2026, VAT Group AG reported record Q2 2026 order intake of CHF 500 million — up 40.3% sequentially and 101.9% year on year, or 39.1% and 111.2% at constant currency. (2) Data centre build-out is the named driver — VAT attributes the upturn explicitly to data centre investment driving advanced chip fab build-out, against supply and demand imbalances at the leading edge. (3) The ramp costs money before it makes money — VAT's H1 2026 EBITDA margin came in at 29.0%, slightly below the prior year, because ramp costs weigh while the company adds full-time employees and expands its supply chain. (4) The official statistics cannot see the niche, and the register corrects the map — BFS STATENT 2024, published 20 August 2026, records 119,010 employees across 2,117 establishments in NOGA division 26 — the largest Swiss manufacturing division, up 6.4% in two years and 9.7% since 2012 — but division 26 also contains Swiss watchmaking, and the BFS publishes nothing finer.

The principal acquisition risks are: (1) The next downturn will be as sharp as this upturn. Buyers underwrite semiconductor equipment suppliers through the cycle, not at the top of it, and a valuation anchored on 2026 order intake will be tested; (2) Customer geography is concentrated in exactly the jurisdictions most exposed to export control and technology transfer restrictions, which can close addressable end markets with little notice; (3) US tariff escalation through 2025-2026 — 39% in August 2025, capped at 15% in November 2025, Section 232 steel, aluminium and copper duties of 10-50% from April 2026 — raises input costs and complicates transatlantic shipment. Buyers should conduct thorough due diligence on customer concentration, regulatory compliance, and key-person dependencies. Deal multiples of 8.0 - 12.0× EBITDA may be discounted for firms with elevated risk profiles.

The typical cost breakdown for a Swiss Semiconductors & SEMI Equipment firm is: Specialized Components & Materials: 28%, Personnel Costs (high R&D intensity): 32%, R&D and Engineering: 14%, Equipment Depreciation & Cleanroom: 10%, Other Operating Costs: 6%, Profit Margin (EBITDA): 10%. Indicative split for a Swiss semiconductor equipment or component supplier. R&D and engineering carry a share that would be unusual in general manufacturing, because a component only earns revenue once it has been qualified into a customer's tool platform. Margin behaviour in this niche is cycle-dependent in a specific way: VAT reported an H1 2026 EBITDA margin of 29.0%, slightly below the prior year, because ramp costs land before operating leverage does while the company adds FTEs and expands its supply chain — with the leverage expected to materialise fully in H2 2026. The general Swissmem capacity utilisation figure of 81.1% for Q2 2026, against a long-run average of 85.6% (2015-2025), does not describe this niche, which is currently ramping rather than idling. These benchmarks are important for buyers assessing operational efficiency and margin improvement potential post-acquisition.

Switzerland's main Semiconductors & SEMI Equipment clusters are: (1) St. Gallen Rhine valley (SG) — The densest semiconductor equipment cluster in Switzerland and one of the densest anywhere per head of population. (2) Greater Zurich (ZH) — Sensor and connectivity semiconductors rather than capital equipment. (3) Fribourg and the Mittelland (FR, BE) — RF power and process subsystems. Comet Holding AG and COMET AG are registered in Wünnewil-Flamatt, in the canton of Fribourg rather than Bern as earlier editions of this report stated, supplying RF power delivery, impedance matching and X-ray systems into semiconductor plasma processes. (4) Lake Geneva and Neuchâtel (GE, NE) — Device and design work, distinct from the equipment cluster. STMicroelectronics SA is registered in Plan-les-Ouates (GE) alongside Swiss branches of STMicroelectronics International N.V.; EM Microelectronic-Marin SA in Laténa (NE) builds ultra-low-power integrated circuits for the Swatch Group; and CSEM in Neuchâtel supplies the microtechnology research layer beneath both. Regional concentration affects valuations, as companies in established clusters benefit from supplier ecosystems, specialized talent pools, and industry networks.