New York, Feb 13, 2026, 05:09 (ET) — Premarket
Applied Materials faces another round in premarket action after issuing better-than-expected second-quarter revenue and profit forecasts late Thursday. Shares finished down 3.4% to $328.39 in the regular session.
The numbers here aren’t just about Applied. As a bellwether for wafer-fab equipment, what Applied signals on guidance tends to echo through the entire sector. These are the tools chipmakers need for building out faster processors and memory.
Awkward timing, no question. Tech and chip names keep reacting to shifting rate expectations, and with a major U.S. inflation readout still to come this morning, traders are on edge.
Applied Materials, the top U.S. supplier of chipmaking equipment, is looking for second-quarter sales to land around $7.65 billion, give or take $500 million, and sees adjusted earnings coming in at roughly $2.64 a share, plus or minus 20 cents—both numbers ahead of LSEG consensus. For the first quarter, the company brought in $7.01 billion in revenue and reported adjusted profit of $2.38 per share. Finance chief Brice Hill flagged record DRAM sales, and CEO Gary Dickerson credited “the acceleration of industry investments in AI computing” for the strong results. Rothschild & Co. Redburn’s Timm Schulze-Melander noted memory as “a greater growth driver near-term.” The stock jumped more than 12% after hours, helping to pull Lam Research and KLA up nearly 3% apiece post-market. Reuters
DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, handles the essential job of storing data a processor needs on the fly. But high-bandwidth memory—HBM—takes things up a notch by stacking DRAM chips, letting AI processors chew through data at speed. That’s turned HBM into a critical supply chokepoint for the entire industry.
Another matter remains active. According to a filing, Applied will pay $252.5 million to the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security, settling a probe focused on some exports to China and related compliance questions. Applied also agreed to bolster internal audits and provide training. The company noted that the Justice Department and SEC have wrapped up their own investigations without any enforcement.
Sure, that removes one obstacle. Yet, the bigger risk remains. Equipment makers still face unpredictable swings in demand, tied to China exposure and shifting U.S. export rules. Things can change fast—often with little notice.
Friday brought a quick call from Summit Insights’ Kinngai Chan, who bumped up Applied to a “Buy” from “Hold.” The firm is looking for technology shifts tied to AI, smartphones, PCs, and the internet of things to spark heavier logic/foundry and DRAM investment in 2026. Investing.com
Investors call capital spending “capex.” It’s the money chipmakers allocate for building new plants or upgrading existing tools. Bump up those budgets, and equipment suppliers tend to see orders climb—though typically after a delay.
The risk is clear enough: should memory supplies loosen up quicker than folks anticipate, or if chipmakers hit the brakes on spending following the recent rush, demand for equipment could slacken. And when that happens, these stocks aren’t exactly bargains as the cycle shifts.
The U.S. consumer price index for January lands at 8:30 a.m. ET, with traders watching for moves in yields and tech stocks that feel every rate jolt. Applied is set to report earnings May 14—by then, investors want numbers and margins to back up the AI-memory spending narrative, not just another round of bullish commentary.
