SKF’s history goes back to the first major patents in ball bearings, when in 1907 it was the first to patent the self-aligning ball bearing. SKF and Schaeffler Group are the top two global ball bearing suppliers, followed by Timken, NSK, NTN, and JTEKT. Combined, these six companies supply about 60% of the world’s ball bearings. However, most of them have sector niches, as ball bearings for industrial purposes are engineered for specific applications. SKF is based in Sweden and has a global manufacturing footprint of 106 sites and about 17,000 global distributor locations. The firm operates under two segments: industrials, with a fairly fragmented customer base; and automotive, which is the opposite, with a concentrated customer base including the likes of Tesla.