Dutch chip equipment maker Nearfield planning IPO by 2028, CEO says

By Toby Sterling

AMSTERDAM - Nearfield Instruments is eying a stock market listing in the next three years amid growing adoption of its measurement tools, its CEO told Reuters, potentially giving the Netherlands another publicly-listed computer chip equipment maker.

"We are planning for IPO in 2027, 2028 at the latest," Hamed Sadeghian said. "It depends on the market situation," he added, as the chip industry, currently enjoying an AI-driven boom, is famously cyclical.

Rotterdam-based Nearfield, which counts South Korea's Samsung among its customers, said this week it has had "multiple orders" from a U.S. customer and plans to open offices there. Sadeghian declined to identify the customer.

The Netherlands boasts several semiconductor equipment manufacturers, including lithography giant ASML, advanced packaging firm Besi, and atomic deposition specialist ASM International.

Nearfield, founded in 2016, raised $148 million in July from investors including Walden Catalyst and Singapore's state fund Temasek to expand.

Its measurement technology uses atomic force microscopy to measure silicon wafers, which allows it to operate at dimensions smaller than most wavelengths of light.

Though the main use for Nearfield tools is on advanced logic chips, Sadeghian said interest has grown from memory chip makers and makers of older generations of chips used in cars and power grids, where innovation continues.

New chip designs involve more stacking of chips together, which makes alignment - for which metrology tools such as those manufactured by Nearfield are needed - more important.

(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Jan Harvey)