New York, June 2, 2026, 18:02 EDT
- Applied Materials AMAT finished up 6.96% at $490.05, hitting $491.51 during the session to notch a fresh 52-week high.
- The Philadelphia semiconductor index gained 5.9%. The Nasdaq Composite edged up.
- CFO Brice Hill said at a BofA conference that customers are putting in more orders as AI drives demand for chips at factories.
Applied Materials surged almost 7% on Tuesday, hitting a fresh 52-week high as buyers pushed into semiconductor equipment names tied to the AI buildout. Shares finished at $490.05, up 6.96%. Intraday, the stock reached $491.51.
Nasdaq closed up 0.03%, but the Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index jumped 5.9%. The gains came as money moved into chip stocks tied to AI, setting up a rare gap between broader tech and semiconductor names. The move was seen as more than a typical big-tech rally.
Applied Materials shares often move when the market sees chipmakers boosting production, as the company sells wafer fab equipment for chip plants. Its CFO Brice Hill was on deck at the BofA Securities Global Technology Conference on Tuesday, speaking to investors at 11:40 a.m. EDT.
Applied Materials is now looking for over 30% growth in semiconductor systems this year, Hill said, after it saw new orders from customers. Hill said customers are now able to “connect the dots” from AI demand to chip factory spending. He pointed to strong growth in leading-edge logic, DRAM memory and advanced packaging for Applied. StockAnalysis
Physical limits are playing a role. Hill said demand is being “metered by clean room space,” meaning the super-clean factory floors needed to make chips. New fabs can take three or four years to set up, he said. Applied isn’t the output bottleneck as long as it gets the proper customer signals, according to Hill. StockAnalysis
Peers tracked the move. Lam Research climbed 5.45%, KLA tacked on about 5.4% and ASML’s U.S. shares put up a 4.7% gain. The rally focused on chip equipment makers, not just chip designers.
Applied shares have extended their recent gains after its second-quarter numbers in May. The company hit a record $7.91 billion in revenue, up 11% year over year. GAAP EPS was also a record at $3.51. Adjusted EPS came in at $2.86, which leaves out some items.
Applied gave third-quarter revenue guidance of $8.95 billion, give or take $500 million, and set non-GAAP EPS at $3.36, plus or minus 20 cents. CEO Gary Dickerson said the company has an “exceptionally strong foundation” as AI infrastructure spending drives demand for leading-edge logic, DRAM and advanced packaging. Applied Materials
Applied has pitched that demand as pushing past just a single-quarter jump. In late May, Applied said SCREEN Semiconductor Solutions would come aboard its EPIC Center, the company’s Silicon Valley research site aimed at moving chipmaking tech from lab to factory faster. Broadcom had already joined EPIC for advanced packaging, which connects chips and chiplets more closely in high-performance hardware.
But the stock is now close to its 52-week high and is trading at a price-to-earnings ratio over 46. That leaves less margin if AI capital spending pulls back, memory prices shift, or chipmakers delay factory plans. Applied has pointed to risks from changing demand, export controls, tariffs, supply chain constraints, and reliance on a handful of customers.
Broadcom results land Wednesday, with the U.S. jobs report following Friday. Both are set to test if AI-equipment demand keeps moving past worries about inflation from oil and rate risk.
Chip equipment names led on Tuesday, even as the rest of the market was mixed. Mike Dickson, who runs portfolio management at Horizon Investments, told Reuters there was “massive dispersion” across AI infrastructure. Applied Materials was among the winners. Reuters
