Ichor Holdings, Ltd. — AI supply-chain exposure

Ichor is a US integrator of the fluid- and gas-delivery subsystems that route precise flows of process gases and chemicals into semiconductor tools. It sits on the chips-equipment layer as a supplier into foundry capacity: it builds the gas panels and chemical-delivery modules that equipment makers bolt into their etch and deposition systems. Its business is concentrated — Lam Research and Applied Materials account for the bulk of what it sells.

Its structural hook is being an outsourced arm of the two largest deposition-and-etch tool makers, which makes it a leveraged play on their build rates. That concentration cuts both ways: it rises and falls with a handful of customers rather than setting its own terms, so its pricing power is thinner than a sole-source component maker's. The model places it in the chain because gas delivery is essential plumbing for every advanced fab, but its centrality reflects a subsystem integrator, not a chokepoint.