Wafer Inspection Market Set to Approach $10 Billion by 2030

AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- AINewsWire Editorial Coverage: The artificial intelligence boom has moved its toughest bottleneck. It is no longer just about who can etch the smallest transistor. Increasingly, it is about who can package finished chips fast enough, cleanly enough and in high enough volume to keep AI data centers supplied. NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang has said publicly that the company is expanding capacity for CoWoS-L, the advanced packaging process behind its newest chips, while continuing to push suppliers on yield and production speed. That same pressure is now rippling through the automation and inspection layer that supports packaging lines, an area where Nightfood Holdings Inc. (OTCQB: NGTF) (profile), doing business as TechForce Robotics, intends to compete. Last week, the company announced the formation of TechForce Advanced Manufacturing, Inc., a majority-owned subsidiary built with a Taiwan-based manufacturing partner to expand production of automated Wafer Sorter and AOI systems for 8-inch and 12-inch wafers, with initial production and revenue targeted for the fourth quarter of 2026. Nightfood is focused on joining other leaders who are operating in the broader AI/automation ecosystem, including NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ: AMD), Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO) and Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ: MU). * For years, the semiconductor industry's central challenge was shrinking transistors. Today, the industry is increasingly confronting another challenge: integrating those transistors into larger, high-performance systems. * Adding packaging capacity is only half the equation; manufacturers also have to keep yield and cycle time moving in the right direction as volumes scale, and that balance has proven difficult to strike. * As packaging workflows have grown more intricate, the tools used to move, inspect and sort wafers have quietly become just as important as the packaging processes themselves. * The dollars behind this shift are becoming easier to see. The global semiconductor wafer inspection equipment market was estimated at $6.52 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach approximately $9.67 billion by 2030. * Nightfood Holdings just announced the formation of TechForce Advanced Manufacturing Inc. Click here to view the custom infographic of the Nightfood Holdings editorial.