$LPKF is all the hype today, I first covered LPKF Laser & Electronics (lpk.de) with the community on February 1, 2026 a when the stock was trading at approximately €7.8. As of April 20, 2026, it has surged to €13.0  approximately 66% in under three months.

And then again covered in my post on 22 Feb.

A great question came in from the community today: $LPKF vs. $SHMD, which is the better stock for the glass substrate supercycle? Whose tech is better?

To me the Right Question is Not Who has better technology  …  It's which layer and who has higher chances of being disrupted

These two companies are not competitors. They are sequential steps in the same production line. Asking which one to buy is like asking whether you need the drill or the plumbing. The answer is both,  because one is useless without the other.

LPKF creates the hole.=> SCHMID makes the hole electrically functional. A drilled via with no copper inside carries no signal.

Neither step can substitute for the other the physics is absolute.

$LPKF

LPKF's LIDE process uses a  laser to create a precise damage track through glass, followed by a selective wet etch that removes only the modified material. The result is via walls with near-zero micro-crack initiation and minimal residual stress critical when a single crack under a $10,000 co-packaged AI assembly scraps the entire unit.

Their moat is process IP and tacit knowledge. Major semiconductor and packaging players have qualified LPKF equipment in their validation lines, creating significant switching costs once a process is certified around LPKF's specific via geometry.

The risk: this is an equipment moat, not a production moat. LPKF sells machines. Real competitors to watch are Trumpf, Coherent's laser division, and Philoptics (KOSDAQ: 161580), backed by Samsung's production commitment, which claims a single-pass variable geometry approach that warrants monitoring. Covered in my post on Feb 22

SCHMID Group N.V. ($SHMD)

Where LPKF drills the hole, SCHMID's wet-chemical processing systems make it functional. Their InfinityLine systems handle the full sequence: cleaning via walls, depositing the seed layer that anchors copper to glass, electroless plating to initiate fill, electrolytic plating to build copper to specification, and final surface treatment.

Three engineering challenges make this harder than it sounds:

• Adhesion: Copper does not naturally bond to glass. SCHMID's seed layer chemistry creates a molecular bridge that must survive thousands of thermal cycles under AI workload conditions.

• Void-free fill: A 50-100 micron via at 200-400 micron depth requires uniform copper fill with zero voids. A void at 1.6T signal frequencies causes impedance discontinuity the signal reflects rather than transmits.

• CTE mismatch: Glass expands at ~3 ppm/°C. Copper at ~17 ppm/°C. Post-plating chemistry must manage this stress differential to prevent delamination over product lifetime.

SHMD's competitive moat is systems integration. They supply not just individual tools but the co-optimized process sequence chemistry, equipment parameters, and controls tuned together. Substituting a competitor's tool mid-sequence requires re qualifying the entire line from scratch.

Disruption risk is lower than LPKF's because there is no competing technology threatening to replace electroless and electrolytic plating at this layer. The longer-term risk is customer internalization a major manufacturer developing proprietary wet processing in-house but this typically takes 5-7 years.

The Capital Expenditure Reality

Per complete glass substrate production line:

* Laser drilling (LPKF's layer): ~15-20% of total capex

* Wet processing (SCHMID's layer): ~35-45% of total capex

SCHMID captures a larger share of each production line dollar not because wet processing is more important, but because it involves more sequential steps and more installed equipment surface area. This is the revenue opportunity sizing that should anchor any financial model.

Conclusion: Why Choose?

Buy LPKF for high-beta exposure to the precision drilling chokepoint. Accept the high multiple and the small-cap volatility. 

Buy SCHMID ($SHMD) for exposure to the larger-capex wet processing layer, lower disruption risk, and a more reasonable entry valuation. The "general contractor" of the glass substrate line captures more dollars per fab buildout than the drilling specialist.

However, I would either open small positions, or not enter currently and wait for pullback, especially for LPKF.

Disclaimer: For research purposes only. Not financial advice. Prices approximate as of April 20, 2026. Verify all data independently before making investment decisions.