Given that it includes three of the 10 largest companies in the world by market capitalization, the semiconductor and chipmaking industry sets a lofty standard for what it means to be an average-sized firm. Similarly, "small" semiconductor companies, or at least those that are smaller than titans like NVIDIA Corp. (NASDAQ: NVDA), might still be valued in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Nonetheless, because a few major players have dominated semiconductor news cycles in recent quarters, many of these other companies get overlooked.
Three such firms, Arm Holdings plc (NASDAQ: ARM), Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ: LRCX), and ASML Holding N.V. (NASDAQ: ASML), have captivated analyst attention. While NVDA shares have fallen by about 15% year-to-date (YTD) as of March 18, 2025, shares of these other smaller firms have either dipped to a smaller degree or even climbed so far this year, helping them to further stand out for investors willing to look beyond the big names.
