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, along with the 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 out of Sweden and has a global manufacturing footprint of 106 sites and about 17,000 global distributor locations. The firm operates under two segments: industrials, which has a fairly fragmented customer base; and automotive, which is the opposite, with a concentrated customer base including the likes of Tesla.