SKF's history goes back to the first major patents in ball bearings: In 1907, SKF was the first to patent the self-aligning ball bearing, which is easily recognisable today. Along with the Schaeffler Group, it is one of the top two global ball bearing suppliers, followed by Timken, NSK, NTN, and JTEK. Combined, these six companies supply about 60% of the world's ball bearings. The company is based in Sweden and has a global manufacturing footprint of 108 sites and 17,000 global distributor locations. SKF operates under two segments: industrial, which has a fairly fragmented customer base, and automotive, which is the opposite, with a concentrated customer base that includes the likes of Tesla.