# Nearfield Instruments raises $380 million for AI chip metrology

> Introduction: an open letter to those still doubting European tech

- Author: Maxime Marquette
- Publisher: MadMax (https://mad-max.co)
- Section: Open letter
- Published: 2026-07-04
- Canonical URL: https://mad-max.co/en/article/nearfield-instruments-leve-380-millions-pour-la-metrologie-des-puces-ia

## Introduction: an open letter to those still doubting **European** tech

### A Dutch record that deserves to be shouted from the rooftops

Dear reader convinced that **Europe** now does nothing but follow the United States and China in the technology race, I have news for you: **Nearfield Instruments**, a Dutch company based in **Rotterdam**, has just closed a **funding round** of **$380 million** in **Series D**, announced on **June 22**, 2026, the largest ever raised by a **deep-tech** company in the **Netherlands**.

This deal now values the company at **$1.6 billion**, propelling it directly into the coveted rank of technology **unicorn**, in a sector as **strategic** as it is unfamiliar to the general public: **semiconductor** **metrology**, the art of measuring, with atomic **precision**, the manufacturing quality of the most **advanced** electronic **chips** in the world.

### Why I'm writing this letter today

I am writing this letter to you because this kind of news too often goes unnoticed, drowned out in the flood of spectacular announcements about generative **artificial intelligence**, even though it is precisely the sort of invisible technological infrastructure without which no advanced AI chip could ever come into being under proper quality conditions.

Founded in **2016** as a spin-off of the Dutch **research** institute **TNO**, **Nearfield Instruments** embodies exactly the kind of long-term technological bet that **Europe** must learn to support more, rather than settling for helplessly admiring American and Asian successes in this field.

*I'll say it plainly: every time a **European** company of this technological caliber pulls off a **funding round** of this size, it's one more argument against the defeatist narrative claiming **Europe** has definitively lost the **semiconductor** battle against the American and Asian giants.*

## What exactly **Nearfield** Instruments does

### Atomic force microscopes to measure the invisible

**Nearfield** Instruments develops **atomic force microscopes**, devices capable of taking direct measurements of chip features only a few **atoms** tall, by dragging a probe across their surface, a process that **Reuters** compares to the way a needle moves across a vinyl record.

These measurements are taken periodically throughout the hundreds of steps required to manufacture a modern electronic chip, to ensure the production process stays within required tolerances, a field known as **semiconductor metrology**, today largely dominated by the American firm **KLA Corporation**.

### A niche position of high **strategic** value

The company's flagship system, named **QUADRA**, along with its **AUDIRA** platform, enables non-destructive, high-throughput, high-resolution measurements, specifically designed for the most **advanced** chip architectures, including **High-NA EUV**, **gate-all-around** **technologies**, and 3D integration via hybrid bonding.

This precise technical specialization explains why **investors** are jostling for a spot: amid a global boom in the manufacture of chips dedicated to **artificial intelligence**, the ability to guarantee manufacturing quality at the atomic scale is becoming a strategic bottleneck for the entire **semiconductor** **industry**.

*This comparison to a turntable needle particularly appeals to me, because it makes concrete a technological process that would otherwise be hard to picture: we are not talking about gadgets here, but about a precision infrastructure that is absolutely fundamental to the entire **advanced chip** **industry**.*

## Who put the money on the table, and why it matters

### Fidelity leads an impressive funding round

The **funding** round was led by **Fidelity Management** & Research Company, a new investor in the deal, alongside **Temasek**, **Walden Catalyst Ventures**, **Innovation Industries**, **M&G Investments**, and **Invest-NL**, the Dutch public investment fund, according to the company's official statement.

The **Qatar Investment Authority**, Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, also joined this round as a new investor, alongside long-standing **investors** **TNO Ventures** and **ING**, confirming the international appeal of a deal nonetheless led out of Rotterdam rather than Silicon Valley.

### The presence of a former **Samsung** executive, a strong signal

Among the investors, the presence of **Walden Catalyst Ventures**, a venture **capital** fund co-founded by **Young Sohn**, former chief strategy officer at **Samsung Electronics**, drew particular attention from the specialized Asian press, according to the **Seoul Economic Daily**, which sees it as a strong signal of Nearfield's technological credibility within the **global** semiconductor industry.

This round, described by the company itself as oversubscribed, illustrates investment demand far exceeding available supply, a classic indicator of the high confidence this deal now inspires among the most demanding international institutional investors.

*Seeing a Gulf sovereign wealth fund and a former Samsung executive invest side by side in a Dutch **deep-tech** company is the clearest proof that the geography of technological **innovation** has long since stopped being confined to Silicon Valley alone.*

## A **global** race for **artificial intelligence** chips as backdrop

### **Metrology**, the invisible link in the AI revolution

This funding round comes amid unprecedented global demand for metrology and inspection tools in the manufacture of semiconductors compatible with artificial intelligence, according to the company's own statement, which speaks of "unprecedented global demand."

As the chips used to train and run artificial intelligence **models** become denser and more complex, the margin of error tolerated in their manufacture shrinks accordingly, making Nearfield's atomic-precision measurement tools ever more indispensable to the world's major **manufacturers** of advanced chips.

### The CEO describes an industry undergoing deep change

Nearfield Instruments co-founder and CEO **Hamed Sadeghian** told **Reuters** that the funds would be used to expand manufacturing and customer support operations amid a boom in the manufacture of chips dedicated to artificial intelligence, without however disclosing the names of his current **customers**.

Sadeghian nonetheless confirmed that Nearfield's tools are already being used by advanced chip manufacturers, a further sign of this Dutch company's growing integration into the most strategic production chains of the global semiconductor industry.

*This caution from the CEO about the identity of his customers strikes me as telling of a sector where **industrial** discretion remains the absolute norm: in the race for **AI chips**, no one wants to prematurely reveal who's working with whom, given how enormous the competitive stakes are.*

## A meteoric rise since the **Series C** round

### From $150 million to $380 million in under two years

This **Series D** round comes less than two years after the close, in **July 2024**, of a **Series C** round of **$146 million** (**€135 million** at the time), led by **Walden Catalyst** and **Temasek**, with participation from **M&G Investment**, **Innovation Industries**, **Invest-NL**, and **ING**, according to **DatacenterDynamics**.

This rapid progression, from a Series C round to a Series D round almost three times larger in such a short time, reflects an accelerating **growth** trajectory for the company, driven by the explosion in global demand for chip-manufacturing infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence.

### A **valuation** that has more than doubled

The company's **valuation** has thus, within the span of two years, risen to a level that now places it among the most highly valued **European** **deep-tech** companies in its category, in a sector where few **European** players manage to achieve such international financial recognition in the face of American and Asian **competition**.

This upward trajectory also illustrates the ability of the Dutch **deep-tech** **ecosystem**, already known for hosting global giant **ASML**, to bring forth new **technology champions** in adjacent market segments that are just as strategic for the future of the semiconductor industry.

*This acceleration in **valuation** over such a short time impresses me, but it also calls for caution: **deep-tech** **funding** cycles can rise as fast as they can fall if global demand for AI chips were to cool off in the coming years.*

## The Dutch deep-tech ecosystem, a model worth watching

### A direct legacy of the **ASML** ecosystem

Nearfield Instruments builds on a Dutch semiconductor ecosystem already globally recognized thanks to **ASML**, the Dutch lithography-machine maker without which no advanced chip could be produced anywhere in the world today.

This geographic and industrial proximity to **ASML**, as well as to the **research** institute **TNO** from which Nearfield directly emerged, illustrates the strength of a Dutch ecosystem capable of producing world-class technology companies in highly specialized industrial niches with strong barriers to entry.

### An encouraging signal for European **technological sovereignty**

At a time when European leaders are multiplying their speeches about the need to strengthen the continent's **technological sovereignty** against China and the United States, this funding round offers a concrete, quantifiable, and verifiable example of what that ambition can produce when built on decades of investment in fundamental research.

This success should not, however, obscure the structural fragility of the European deep-tech ecosystem, which remains largely dependent on foreign **capital**, as illustrated precisely by the majority participation of American, Singaporean, and Qatari investors in this round, despite it being billed as a Dutch record.

*I welcome this Dutch success, but I refuse to give in to naive optimism: as long as most of the capital financing our technology champions comes from American, Singaporean, or Qatari funds, talk of genuine European **technological sovereignty** will remain, in part, an exercise in political messaging.*

## The challenges awaiting Nearfield despite this financial success

### Competition dominated by established giants

Despite this record funding round, Nearfield Instruments continues to operate in a semiconductor metrology market largely dominated by far more established industrial giants, foremost among them American firm **KLA Corporation**, whose dominant position will not be easily challenged despite the fresh capital now flowing into the Dutch company.

This competitive reality requires Nearfield to prove, beyond its ability to raise funds, its operational capacity to deliver its equipment at scale and within timeframes compatible with the production demands of the world's largest advanced-semiconductor manufacturers.

### The risk of excessive dependence on a cyclical sector

The semiconductor industry remains historically cyclical, alternating between phases of massive investment and sharper slowdowns, a risk factor that several sector analysts regularly highlight when assessing the long-term sustainability of companies heavily exposed to demand tied to artificial intelligence.

Should current demand for artificial intelligence chips stabilize or slow in the coming years, Nearfield will need to demonstrate its ability to diversify its customer base beyond the segments most directly tied to this currently booming demand.

*This caution about the sector's cyclicality is not gratuitous pessimism on my part: it is a necessary reminder that even today's most promising companies must prove their resilience across several economic cycles before they can be called genuine, lasting industrial champions.*

## What this funding round says about the industry's future

### An infrastructure that is invisible but indispensable

This deal recalls a truth too often forgotten in the public debate over artificial intelligence: behind every spectacular advance by the **large language models** lies a chain of complex hardware infrastructure, of which semiconductor metrology is one of the most **critical** yet least publicized links.

Without measurement tools as precise as those developed by Nearfield Instruments, no advanced chip manufacturer could guarantee the reliability of its production processes at the industrial scale needed to meet today's global demand tied to artificial intelligence.

### A sector set to keep attracting capital

Several sector observers, cited by specialized publications such as **Photonics Spectra**, believe that demand for this type of metrology and inspection solution should only intensify in the coming years, as chip architectures continue to grow in complexity and density.

This dynamic suggests further major funding rounds in this niche sector in the coming months, both in Europe and elsewhere in the world, as institutional investors identify semiconductor metrology as a strategic segment still relatively underinvested relative to its real industrial importance.

*This trend toward investing massively in the invisible infrastructure of artificial intelligence rather than solely in visible applications strikes me as a healthy sign of the sector's maturation: investors are finally starting to understand that the AI revolution is also, and perhaps above all, playing out in the workshop rather than in the lab.*

## A useful comparison with other European deep-tech champions

### A club still small but growing

Nearfield Instruments joins a still-small but growing club of European **deep-tech** companies that have managed to reach unicorn status while remaining rooted in their European industrial base, a phenomenon that remains statistically much rarer on the continent than in the United States or Asia.

This club notably includes Dutch and German companies active in fields as varied as industrial robotics, quantum **technologies**, and additive manufacturing, all areas where Europe retains significant scientific strengths but still too often struggles to turn its advances into world-class industrial champions.

### A lesson for European public policy

Nearfield Instruments' journey, from its founding as a public research spin-off in 2016 to its current valuation of $1.6 billion, illustrates the crucial importance of funding fundamental public research as an indispensable foundation for the emergence, years later, of private industrial champions capable of competing on a global scale.

This trajectory deserves close study by European policymakers who are seeking, with mixed success so far, to replicate elsewhere on the continent the conditions that allowed these few Dutch successes to emerge in the highly strategic semiconductor sector.

*If European governments truly want more companies like Nearfield Instruments, they should draw directly from this Dutch recipe: patiently fund fundamental public research, rather than multiplying announcements about technological sovereignty without committing the budgetary resources needed over the long haul.*

## The next steps announced by the company

### A global production expansion announced

According to Nearfield Instruments' official statement, the funds raised will be used to accelerate the company's **innovation** roadmap, establish centers of excellence in applications on a global scale, significantly expand production capacity, and strengthen its international customer support organization.

The company also plans to deepen its research and development collaboration with the world's leading semiconductor manufacturers, a strategic direction that confirms its intent to firmly root itself in the most critical **supply chains** of the advanced-chip industry.

### An execution timeline that remains to be clarified

The company has not communicated a precise timeline for the concrete implementation of these various development goals, a usual reticence for this type of financial announcement, but one that nonetheless leaves several questions open about the actual pace of execution of this international expansion strategy.

The coming months will reveal whether Nearfield can actually turn this exceptional financial windfall into tangible market-share gains against international competition that will certainly not sit idle in the face of this rising Dutch player.

*I will keep a close eye on how Nearfield actually turns this money into measurable industrial results: a record funding round, in the end, is only worth what it genuinely allows a company to build in the years following its announcement.*

## The ASML precedent, an industrial history lesson not to forget

### A global giant that also started from a modest bet

It is impossible to tell the story of Nearfield Instruments without mentioning that of **ASML**, the Dutch lithography-machine maker that today dominates, without serious competitors, the production of the most advanced equipment used to etch the most sophisticated **electronic chips** on the planet.

ASML was not born a giant: the company took decades to build its current technological monopoly, drawing on a Dutch ecosystem of public research and patient funding very similar to the one now supporting Nearfield Instruments in its own segment of semiconductor metrology.

### An industrial lineage openly claimed by the players themselves

The leaders of **Nearfield Instruments** do not hide the fact that they draw direct inspiration from ASML's growth model, a comparison that is far from trivial in a country where this lithography-machine maker's success has become a genuine national reference point for technology industrial policy.

This historical lineage lends additional credibility to the bet made by investors who have just injected $380 million into the company: betting on Nearfield is also a bet on the Netherlands' proven ability to turn niche scientific expertise into a dominant industrial position on a global scale.

*I find this comparison to ASML both inspiring and risky to handle: it offers legitimate hope, but it can also become a lazy shortcut if we forget that every company still has to prove, through its own industrial results, that it deserves such a historical parallel.*

## What this story reveals about the fragility of global **supply chains**

### A strategic dependence few governments had anticipated

The **COVID-19** pandemic, followed by trade tensions between the United States and China, brutally revealed in recent years just how much the entire global economy depends on an extremely small number of suppliers for the most critical equipment used in advanced semiconductor manufacturing.

In this context, a company like **Nearfield Instruments**, which offers a credible alternative in the specific segment of atomic force **microscopy** metrology, takes on a strategic importance far exceeding its currently relatively modest size in terms of headcount and revenue.

### Diversifying supply to reduce systemic risk

Several Western governments, including those of the **Netherlands** and the **European Union**, have explicitly made diversifying semiconductor **supply chains** a priority of industrial policy, notably through instruments such as the European **Chips Act**, designed to strengthen the continent's technological sovereignty.

Nearfield Instruments' financial success fits directly into this logic of reducing systemic risk: the more credible players there are capable of supplying cutting-edge metrology equipment, the less vulnerable the global chip industry remains to the failure or strategic decisions of a single dominant supplier.

*This geopolitical dimension of industrial diversification strikes me as underestimated in the media coverage of this funding round: everyone focuses on the numbers and the valuation, but too often forgets that the resilience of global supply chains depends directly on this kind of patient, methodical investment.*

## The quiet but decisive role of the Dutch state in this success

### TNO, the public research institute behind the company

It is essential to remember that **Nearfield Instruments** was not born in a California garage, but as a direct offshoot of **TNO**, the Dutch state-funded organization for applied scientific research, which incubated the company's founding technology before its formal creation in 2016.

This technology-transfer model, in which fundamental public research gradually gives rise to a private company capable of raising hundreds of millions of dollars, illustrates a patient industrial policy that few European countries manage to replicate with such sustained success.

### Invest-NL, the public financial arm still present on the **cap table**

The continued presence of **Invest-NL**, the Dutch public investment fund, among the investors in this Series D round shows that the Dutch state did not simply launch this company and then lose interest, but continues to financially support its growth at every critical stage of its development.

This continuity of public commitment, rarely highlighted in press releases focused on record amounts and spectacular valuations, nonetheless deserves recognition as one of the most important structural factors behind Nearfield Instruments' current success.

*I find it unfortunate that this role played by the Dutch state is so poorly documented in the international media coverage of this funding round: everyone celebrates the prestigious private investors, but too often forgets the patient public architecture that made this company's very existence possible in the first place.*

## Why this story deserves your attention, even if you don't work in tech

### A concrete example of what AI money is really funding

If you follow artificial intelligence news from a distance, this funding round deserves your attention because it concretely illustrates where a considerable share of the global capital mobilized around this technological revolution is actually going: not only toward startups building chatbots, but also, and especially, toward the hardware infrastructure that makes these innovations physically possible.

Understanding this invisible dimension of the artificial intelligence economy makes it easier to grasp why certain countries and regions, such as the Netherlands with its ecosystem around ASML and Nearfield, occupy a **strategic position** disproportionate to their size in today's global **technology geopolitics**.

### A reminder that innovation is not limited to Silicon Valley

This story ultimately reminds us, with concrete and verifiable figures, that disruptive technological innovation is not geographically confined to California alone, but can also emerge from a Dutch public research institute, provided the right funding and industrial support conditions come together over time.

It is precisely this kind of patient, methodical success that deserves greater visibility, against the often excessive fascination of public debate with only the most widely publicized American success stories in the global technology sector.

*I close this letter hoping to have convinced you of one simple thing: the next great European technological success may not come from a spectacular consumer app, but from a quiet lab somewhere in Rotterdam, busy measuring atoms with a precision few of us can even imagine.*

## Conclusion: a letter that ends with a call for vigilance and pride

### Celebrating without naivety

This **$380 million** funding round deserves to be celebrated as a Dutch, and more broadly European, success, in a strategic sector where the continent long seemed condemned to a secondary role against the American and Asian semiconductor giants.

This celebration must, however, come with constant vigilance over the real structure of the capital financing these successes, over the company's operational ability to turn this money into lasting industrial results, and over the inherent cyclicality of a sector that has already experienced brutal downturns in the past.

### A story to follow in the coming months

I will continue to closely follow the evolution of this story, convinced that the story of Nearfield Instruments, still largely unknown to the general public, deserves far more attention than it has received so far in the general media debate devoted to artificial intelligence and its many industrial ramifications.

It remains to be seen, in the coming quarters, whether this Dutch company will manage to live up to its stated ambitions and establish itself lastingly as one of the world's reference players in this segment of advanced semiconductor metrology, as strategic as it is little known.

*In signing this open letter, I mainly want to convey one simple conviction: technological sovereignty is not built only in the speeches of international summits, but truly in labs like Nearfield's, patiently, atom by atom, year after year.*

**By Maxime Marquette, columnist**

## Columnist's transparency note

### Editorial stance

I am not a journalist but a **columnist and analyst**. My expertise lies in observing and analysing the geopolitical, economic and strategic dynamics that shape our world. My work is to take political strategies apart, to understand global economic movements, to put the decisions of international actors in context and to offer analytical perspectives on the changes that are redefining our societies.

I do not claim the cold objectivity of traditional journalism, which stops at reporting facts. **I claim analytical clarity**, rigorous interpretation and a deep understanding of the complex issues that concern us all. My role is to give meaning to the facts, to place them in their historical and strategic context, and to offer a critical reading of events.

### Method and sources

This text keeps the basic distinction between **verified facts and interpretive analysis**. The rule never changes: a factual claim is published only when a verifiable source supports it, and the sources this article actually used are listed under **Sources**, never here.

**Primary source families** used by the publication, when the story has them: official statements from governments and international institutions, public statements by political leaders, reports from intergovernmental organisations, dispatches from recognised international news agencies.

**Secondary source families**: specialised publications, internationally recognised news media, analyses from established research institutions, reports from industry organisations.

When an article cites statistical, economic or geopolitical data, it comes from the institutions that produce it (intergovernmental organisations, central banks, national statistics offices), and the exact institution is named under **Sources**.

### Nature of the analysis

The analyses, interpretations and perspectives in the analytical sections of this article are a **critical, contextual synthesis** based on the information available, the trends observed and the expert comments cited in the sources consulted.

My role is to interpret these facts, to set them in the context of today's geopolitical and economic dynamics, and to give them a coherent meaning within the larger story of the changes shaping our time. These analyses reflect expertise built through continuous observation of international affairs and an understanding of the strategic mechanisms that drive global actors.

This article describes a documented state of affairs on its publication date, not a prediction: later developments may shift its outlook. No update is promised in advance; when an article is corrected or completed, the change is dated in the text.

## Sources

### Primary sources

- [Nearfield Instruments secures $380 million Series D funding — Nearfield Instruments, June 22, 2026](https://www.nearfieldinstruments.com/portfolio/380-million-series-d-funding/)

- [Chipmaking tool firm Nearfield Instruments raises $380 million at $1.6 billion valuation — Reuters, June 22, 2026](https://www.reuters.com/technology/chipmaking-tool-firm-nearfield-instruments-raises-380-million-16-billion-2026-06-22/)

- [Official website of Nearfield Instruments](https://www.nearfieldinstruments.com/)

### Secondary sources

- Nearfield Instruments raises $380 million Series D — TechCrunch, July 2, 2026

- [Nearfield Instruments raises US$380M in record Dutch deep-tech round — DIGITIMES, June 23, 2026](https://www.digitimes.com/news/a20260623VL213/dutch-funding-metrology-manufacturing-3d.html)

- [Nearfield Instruments closes $147.6 million Series C funding round — DataCenterDynamics, July 2024](https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/nearfield-instruments-closes-1476-million-series-c-funding-round/)

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Source: Maxime Marquette, MadMax. When citing, name the author and link https://mad-max.co/en/article/nearfield-instruments-leve-380-millions-pour-la-metrologie-des-puces-ia