23 June 2026

 

Nearfield Instruments has secured $380 million in Series D funding at a valuation of $1.6 billion, a round the company describes as the largest deep-tech investment in Dutch history. The Rotterdam-based semiconductor metrology specialist plans to expand production capacity, accelerate product development and strengthen its global presence as AI increases demand for advanced semiconductor inspection and process-control technologies.

The oversubscribed round was led by Fidelity Management & Research Company and included participation from Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Temasek, Walden Catalyst Ventures, Innovation Industries, M&G Investments, Invest-NL, TNO Ventures and ING.

The funding arrives amid unprecedented investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure. Yet the significance of the deal extends beyond the size of the round.

Nearfield is one of a growing number of companies emerging from the Dutch semiconductor ecosystem that are transforming highly specialised scientific instruments into industrial tools. In its case, the challenge is making Atomic Force Microscopy, a technique known for its extraordinary precision but historically constrained by speed, practical for some of the world's most advanced chip factories.

 

A company built on Dutch research

 

Founded in 2016 as a spin-out from Dutch applied research organisation TNO, Nearfield Instruments emerged from a research environment that has played an important role in the Netherlands' semiconductor industry for decades.

The company was co-founded by Dr Hamed Sadeghian, whose work focused on nanotechnology, precision engineering and semiconductor metrology. Those disciplines sit at the intersection of science and manufacturing, an area where the Netherlands has built a global reputation.

Unlike semiconductor manufacturers, Nearfield does not make chips.

Instead, it develops the measurement and inspection systems that help manufacturers determine whether increasingly complex chips have been built correctly.

That distinction may sound subtle, but it places the company in one of the semiconductor industry's most strategically important segments.

Semiconductor metrology refers to the measurement and inspection technologies used to verify that advanced chips have been manufactured correctly.

As chip designs become more sophisticated, manufacturing them accurately becomes increasingly difficult.

 

Why AI chips are becoming harder to inspect

 

The public conversation around artificial intelligence tends to focus on graphics processors, data centres and large language models.

Less visible are the manufacturing challenges that sit beneath those technologies.

Modern AI chips are becoming increasingly complex. Manufacturers are introducing advanced memory stacking, hybrid bonding technologies and three-dimensional transistor architectures designed to improve performance while reducing power consumption.

These innovations allow more computing power to be packed into smaller spaces, but they also make inspection significantly harder.

Defects can occur beneath the surface of a wafer, inside bonded layers or within vertical structures that are difficult to access using traditional inspection techniques.

A microscopic imperfection may affect performance, reduce manufacturing yield or shorten the operational lifespan of a device.

As a result, process control and metrology have become increasingly important parts of semiconductor manufacturing.

The challenge is no longer simply making advanced chips.

It is ensuring that those chips can be manufactured consistently and at scale.

 

How Nearfield brought Atomic Force Microscopy into semiconductor manufacturing

 

At the centre of Nearfield's technology portfolio is Atomic Force Microscopy, commonly known as AFM.

The technique measures surfaces using an ultra-fine probe that physically scans structures at nanometre scale. Because the probe interacts directly with the surface, Atomic Force Microscopy can reveal details that are difficult to capture using other methods.

Scientists have relied on AFM for decades because of its exceptional precision.

Historically, however, the technology faced a significant limitation. It was often too slow for high-volume semiconductor manufacturing.

Scanning structures at atomic scale requires extraordinary precision, but production environments demand throughput as well as accuracy.

Nearfield's core innovation has been to address that challenge.

The company developed a proprietary multi-probe architecture designed to increase measurement throughput while maintaining the resolution that makes Atomic Force Microscopy valuable.

While the company has not disclosed all technical details of the system, the underlying engineering challenge is substantial. Multiple probes must operate with extreme precision while maintaining stability, avoiding interference and generating reliable data at production speeds.

That requires expertise not only in measurement science but also in motion control, software, sensors and precision mechatronics.

It is precisely the type of engineering challenge for which the Dutch semiconductor ecosystem has become known.

 

Inspecting hidden 3D structures inside advanced chips

 

Nearfield's ambitions extend beyond increasing the speed of Atomic Force Microscopy.

Its AUDIRA platform combines Atomic Force Microscopy with acoustic imaging techniques to provide information about structures beneath the surface of semiconductor devices.

As advanced packaging technologies become more widespread, manufacturers increasingly need ways to inspect features that are no longer fully visible from the outside.

Modern AI accelerators often rely on stacked memory, vertical interconnects and hybrid-bonded structures. These technologies are widely used in high-performance AI processors and High Bandwidth Memory (HBM) systems.

These designs improve performance and energy efficiency but also increase inspection complexity.

Nearfield's technology aims to provide three-dimensional information about such structures while preserving the wafer for further processing.

The company's focus on non-destructive measurement reflects a wider trend within the semiconductor industry, where manufacturers are seeking more detailed process information without sacrificing valuable production wafers.

 

Competing in a market dominated by giants

 

Nearfield may have attracted one of Europe's largest deep-tech funding rounds, but it operates in a highly competitive market.

Specialist companies including the United Kingdom's Infinitesima, the United States-based Bruker and South Korea's Park Systems are also developing advanced Atomic Force Microscopy solutions for semiconductor manufacturing.

The broader competitive landscape is dominated by established industry leaders.

KLA remains the world's largest supplier of semiconductor inspection and metrology systems. Applied Materials combines process equipment with extensive measurement capabilities, while Hitachi High-Tech is a leading supplier of critical-dimension electron microscopy systems used throughout the industry.

Other competitors, including Onto Innovation and Israel's Nova, focus on advanced optical, X-ray and computational metrology approaches.

Against that backdrop, Nearfield's challenge is not simply technological. It must demonstrate that its systems can deliver the reliability, throughput and performance required by some of the world's most demanding manufacturing environments.

The latest funding round suggests investors believe the company is well positioned to do so.

 

Investors see process control becoming strategic

 

The semiconductor industry is entering a period of increasing manufacturing complexity.

Technologies such as High Numerical Aperture Extreme Ultraviolet lithography, advanced three-dimensional integration and future transistor architectures promise significant performance improvements. They also create new process-control challenges.

Investors increasingly view metrology as a critical enabling technology.

Niranjan Sirdeshpande, Head of Catalyst at M&G Investments, believes Nearfield is addressing a growing bottleneck within semiconductor manufacturing.

"As global semiconductor demand accelerates, the ability to manufacture chips with atomic precision becomes a strategic imperative," he said.

"Nearfield's innovative metrology platform directly addresses the process control challenges that advanced chipmakers face as they push toward next-generation nodes and 3D integration architectures."

Young Sohn, Founding Managing Partner at Walden Catalyst Ventures, linked the company's opportunity to two major industry trends.

"Nearfield Instruments is operating at the intersection of two powerful industry shifts: the rapid scaling of AI and the transition to increasingly complex 3D semiconductor architectures," he said.

"As the semiconductor industry enters a critical new phase, advanced metrology and inspection will become essential enablers of the next generation of chip innovation."

For Chief Executive Officer Hamed Sadeghian, the funding represents a significant milestone in the company's development.

"This highly successful funding round marks a defining moment in our journey and reflects the growing strategic importance of metrology and inspection in the era of AI-driven semiconductor innovation," he said.

 

Scaling from technology developer to global supplier

 

Nearfield plans to use the funding to expand manufacturing capacity, accelerate product development, establish application centres around the world and strengthen customer support.

Those investments reflect a challenge familiar to many deep-tech companies.

Developing breakthrough technology is one step. Becoming a trusted supplier to the global semiconductor industry is another.

The world's leading chip manufacturers require long-term reliability, responsive support and continuous innovation from their equipment partners.

Meeting those expectations demands significant operational scale.

The latest funding provides Nearfield with resources to pursue that next phase of growth.

 

Why semiconductor metrology is becoming critical AI infrastructure

 

The semiconductor industry often celebrates the chips that power artificial intelligence. Far less attention is paid to the technologies that verify whether those chips have been manufactured correctly.

Nearfield's funding round highlights the growing importance of that layer of the industry.

The company is not building AI models. It is not manufacturing processors. Instead, it operates within the complex network of equipment suppliers that enable advanced semiconductor production.

That role may prove increasingly important as chip architectures become more sophisticated and manufacturing tolerances continue to shrink.

 

 

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