The expansion of advanced technologies is intensifying demand for energy, materials, and efficiency of production systems, with semiconductors exemplifying the tension between rapid technological progress and resource sustainability, and the development of circular innovations. Yet it remains unclear whether circular innovations in this sector tend to be genuinely disruptive. This study examines the disruptiveness of circular (vs. non-circular) innovations and analyses the role of inventor network structures. The empirical analysis relies on the patents of 299 European Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturing (SEM) companies retrieved from the ORBIS IP database for the period 2013-2022. First, we operationalize disruptiveness by adopting a citation-based measure to reveal whether subsequent inventions build upon or bypass a focal patent’s prior art. Then, co-inventor networks are constructed, and inventor centrality and cohesion measures are aggregated to the patent level to link inventor network structure to disruptive outcomes over time. Our findings show that circular patents exhibit, on average, higher disruptiveness than non-circular patents, and that inventor network structures characterized by more peripheral and high local cohesive configurations align with disruptive circular outcomes. The effect of the network antecedents differs systematically between circular and non-circular innovations, indicating distinct pathways to disruption. The study contributes to the innovation literature by integrating a structural disruptiveness measure with inventor network analytics, offering one of the first patent-level comparisons of circular versus non-circular disruptiveness in the semiconductor industry, and by deriving implications for organizing collaboration portfolios and policy instruments that foster circular transitions.