--- title: "KLA executives sold $93.5 million in six months and not one bought a share" description: "Wallace's November 12 Form 4 records a sale scheduled a year ago. Around it sit six months of KLA insider selling worth about $93.5 million and not one purchase, which is what the market is repricing as Congress moves on chip-equipment exports." publisher: "The Inference" section: "Chips" published: 2026-11-14T20:06:19.737Z modified: 2026-11-14T20:06:19.737Z canonical: https://theinference.org/article/kla-executives-sold-93-5-million-in-six-months-and-not-one-bought-a-share language: en keywords: "KLA, Insider Trading, Semiconductor Equipment, China Export Controls" --- # KLA executives sold $93.5 million in six months and not one bought a share > Wallace's November 12 Form 4 records a sale scheduled a year ago. Around it sit six months of KLA insider selling worth about $93.5 million and not one purchase, which is what the market is repricing as Congress moves on chip-equipment exports. [KLA](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/kla)'s officers have sold roughly $93.5 million of stock over six months and not one has bought a share, and [the Form 4 that reached the SEC on November 12](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/319201/000119312526458307/0001193125-26-458307-index.htm) shows president and CEO Richard Wallace adding to the record [1]. Wallace, who runs the Milpitas, California maker of the inspection and process-control equipment chip fabs use to catch defects, sold 72,014 shares on November 10 for about $10.7 million [2][3]. The sale ran under a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan adopted on November 19, 2025, so the timing was scheduled a year ahead, not a judgment on the quarter [2]. The record it sits inside is the information. *Chart: **Every open-market insider trade at KLA in six months was a sale** Bar chart of six-month insider sale proceeds at KLA, from $1.8 million to $50.5 million, led by CEO Richard Wallace* *Estimated proceeds of open-market sales by KLA officers, six months to mid-November 2026, from Form 4 filings compiled by Quiver Quantitative. [1][2]* ## The people closest to the order book took cash Wallace's four sales this year, 236,113 shares in all, went at an average near $214 each [1]. He kept the bulk of his stake, unvested restricted stock units included, so this reads as trimming rather than flight [2]. The telling part is wider: six officers sold, from chief financial officer Bren Higgins down to the chief accounting officer, and none bought on the way down [1]. The institutions leaned the same way, with 1,294 funds cutting their KLA positions in the latest quarter against 1,109 that added, and Sixth Street selling its entire 10.4 million shares [1]. Shareholders had already spoken, casting about [187 million votes against three directors](https://theinference.org/article/kla-shareholders-withheld-187-million-votes-as-rival-lam-research-authorized-a-25-billion-buyback) at the November 4 annual meeting, 87 million of them against [Robert Calderoni](https://theinference.org/markets/people/robert-calderoni) [4]. ## The business is fine; the geography is the risk Nothing in operations explains the exits. KLA posted September-quarter revenue of $4.14 billion, up 28.9 percent, and guided December to $4.7 billion [3][5][6]. [Its own filing](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/319201/000031920126000034/klac-20260930.htm) calls AI a key technology inflection driving leading-edge demand [5], and [Applied Materials](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/applied-materials), which sells into the same fab budgets, expects wafer fab equipment demand to rise more than 30 percent in 2027 [7]. *Chart: **Revenue has risen two thirds in three years, and December is guided to $4.7 billion** Line chart of KLA quarterly revenue, from $2.49 billion in the December 2023 quarter to $4.14 billion in the September 2026 quarter, and $4.7 billion guided for December 2026* *KLA quarterly revenue, fiscal Q4 2023 through fiscal Q1 2027 ended 30 September 2026, billions of dollars. The last point is the company's December-quarter guidance, not a reported figure. Sources: KLA quarterly figures from its SEC filings; company guidance reported 28 October 2026. [6][10]* ## A third of the revenue sits where a regulator can remove it China was 34.5 percent of that September-quarter revenue, up 49 percent from June on mature-node demand, and KLA lists evolving Commerce Department rules on China sales as a standing risk [5]. After the scandal that ended [Jensen Huang](https://theinference.org/markets/people/jensen-huang)'s run as [Nvidia](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/nvidia)'s chief executive, lawmakers are now [pushing chip and equipment export controls into the annual defense authorization bill](https://rollcall.com/2026/11/12/calls-for-nvidia-probes-new-chip-export-limits-intensify/) [8]. That is the pressure behind November 13's 5.9 percent drop to $152.32, against a 52-week high of $307.37 [9][3]. Read the Form 4 as mechanics and the six months as information. The AI build is real, and this quarter is the evidence; what is being repriced is not whether the machines get made but who is allowed to buy them. On that question, the chief executive took his cash near $214, and the people who own KLA today are the ones carrying the China risk from here. ## Takeaway Six KLA officers sold about $93.5 million of stock in six months and not one bought, a run that sits alongside a China export-control fight the business cannot control. ## Sources 1. [Quiver Quantitative, "KLA falls as chip-equipment stocks weaken on sector pressure and China risk concerns," 13 November 2026](https://www.quiverquant.com/news/KLA+falls+as+chip-equipment+stocks+weaken+on+sector+pressure+and+China+risk+concerns) 2. [SEC EDGAR, KLA Corporation Form 4, Richard P. Wallace, President and CEO, filed 12 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/319201/000119312526458307/0001193125-26-458307-index.htm) 3. [MarketBeat, "KLA (NASDAQ:KLAC) CEO Sells 72,014 Shares of Stock," 12 November 2026](https://www.marketbeat.com/instant-alerts/insider-kla-nasdaq-klac-ceo-sells-72014-shares-of-stock-2026-11-12/) 4. [SEC EDGAR, KLA Corporation Form 8-K, 2026 annual meeting voting results (Item 5.07), filed 6 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/319201/000119312526451824/d76372d8k.htm) 5. [SEC EDGAR, KLA Corporation Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 September 2026, filed 29 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/319201/000031920126000034/klac-20260930.htm) 6. [24/7 Wall St., "KLA beats estimates and guides to $4.7 billion next quarter," 28 October 2026](https://247wallst.com/cards/kla-q1-2027-earnings-klac-01m6238ycew95gf77wcexbevv7) 7. [Yahoo Finance (TIKR), "Applied Materials Sinks 6% After Record Quarter as 10 Analysts Cut Targets; Morningstar Calls AI Worries Overblown," 13 November 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/applied-materials-sinks-6-record-165209582.html) 8. [Roll Call, "Calls for Nvidia probes, new chip export limits intensify," 12 November 2026, updated 13 November 2026](https://rollcall.com/2026/11/12/calls-for-nvidia-probes-new-chip-export-limits-intensify/) 9. [Traders Union, "KLA Corporation slides 5.88% today," 14 November 2026](https://tradersunion.com/news/stocks/show/4234747-kla-corporation-slides-5-88percent-today/) 10. [KLA, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 14 November 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000319201) --- KLA executives sold $93.5 million in six months and not one bought a share — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/kla-executives-sold-93-5-million-in-six-months-and-not-one-bought-a-share