New York, January 5, 2026, 11:54 (EST) — Regular session
- Lam Research shares rose about 6.4% in late-morning trade, outpacing the broader semiconductor ETF.
- A Bank of America note flagged Lam among seven AI-linked chip and equipment names for 2026.
- Traders are watching CES this week and Lam’s next earnings update later this month.
Lam Research stock climbed about 6.4% to $196.90 in late-morning New York trading on Monday, valuing the chip equipment maker at about $162 billion. The shares touched $198.34 earlier in the session, market data showed.
The move matters because investors treat chip-tool suppliers as a direct read on capital spending by chipmakers building capacity for AI workloads. Lam sells the machines used to etch and deposit materials on silicon wafers, a key step in making advanced chips and memory.
Optimism got a lift from a Bank of America note on Monday that highlighted Lam among seven stocks it sees best positioned for 2026. “The AI buildout remains ‘mid-cycle’,” analyst Vivek Arya wrote, arguing CES could reinforce new drivers in robotics and on-device AI alongside continued cloud expansion. 1
The gains were not isolated. Applied Materials rose about 6.9%, KLA gained 7.2% and ASML’s U.S. shares added around 6.2%, while the iShares Semiconductor ETF was up roughly 2.5%.
In chipmaking equipment, investors watch memory spending closely because it can swing faster than demand for logic chips such as CPUs. Bernstein Research upgraded ASML on Monday, arguing the market underestimates upside tied to DRAM — the main memory used in servers — as makers ramp capital expenditure to meet AI-server demand, MarketWatch reported. 2
Lam and its peers are often viewed as “picks-and-shovels” for the AI buildout, benefiting when customers expand factories or upgrade processes. Those budgets can accelerate when cloud companies add data center capacity, and they can slow abruptly when chip inventories rise.
Still, the trade can cut both ways. Any pullback in cloud capital spending or a turn in the memory cycle could pressure tool orders, and tighter U.S. export restrictions remain a wildcard for equipment sales into China.
Investors have a near-term catalyst this week at CES in Las Vegas, which runs Jan. 6-9, according to the show’s organizer. 3
Reuters reported that Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and AMD CEO Lisa Su are among key speakers as companies push deeper into AI-powered systems and robotics — themes that can swing sentiment across the semiconductor supply chain. 4
For Lam, the next company-specific test comes with its quarterly report, due Jan. 28 according to Investing.com. Traders will look for commentary on 2026 wafer-fab equipment spending, the pace of memory investment, and demand trends in China. 5
