NEW YORK, February 3, 2026, 19:12 (EST) — After-hours.
- LRCX fell 3.1% to $230.10 in the regular session; little changed in after-hours trade
- SEC filing: Cadence CEO Anirudh Devgan joined the board; Sesha Varadarajan set to become COO on March 6
- Investors weigh leadership moves and a new R&D pact as tech stocks wobble
Shares of Lam Research slid 3.1% to $230.10 in Tuesday’s regular session and were little changed in after-hours trade. The stock touched an intraday low of $226.88.
In an 8-K — a form companies use to disclose major events — filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it appointed Cadence Design Systems CEO Anirudh Devgan to its board and set a March 6 handover for the chief operating officer role. Patrick J. Lord will retire and Seshasayee Varadarajan will take over as COO, the filing showed. (Securities and Exchange Commission)
The board moves land as Wall Street re-priced parts of tech on worries that new AI tools could squeeze software margins and shake up spending plans. “We’re seeing a lot of software companies across the spectrum get hit,” Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth, said, after Anthropic launched a legal tool for its Claude chatbot. The S&P 500 fell 0.84% and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.43%. (Reuters)
Other chip-equipment makers fell with it. Applied Materials dropped 3.2%, KLA slid 3.8% and ASML lost 1.4%.
“Pat’s leadership has helped build the Lam we know today,” Tim Archer said in a company release announcing the change. Lam said Varadarajan will become COO and Karthik Rammohan will take on a broader role that includes oversight of global trade, government affairs and IT. Lord is set to retire after more than two decades at Lam and Novellus Systems. (Securities and Exchange Commission)
Board chair Abhijit Talwalkar said Devgan’s background in electronic design automation, or EDA — software used to design chips — would add to the board’s technology bench. “Anirudh is one of the industry’s foremost authorities in EDA and virtualization,” Talwalkar said. (Securities and Exchange Commission)
A day earlier, the company announced a multi-year research agreement with CEA-Leti, based in Grenoble, aimed at “Specialty Technology” devices such as sensors and photonics. “As we enter the AI era, the opportunities for Specialty Technology are immense,” Vahid Vahedi said, while Sébastian Dauvé said faster materials characterization could speed the path from lab work to “validated functionality.” (Lam Research Newsroom)
Lam last week forecast third-quarter revenue of $5.7 billion, plus or minus $300 million, and adjusted earnings of $1.35 per share, plus or minus 10 cents. It reported second-quarter revenue of $5.34 billion for the quarter ended Dec. 28, 2025. (Reuters)
Lam supplies wafer fabrication equipment and services used to make integrated circuits — tools that deposit and etch (build and carve) the thin layers that form modern chips. That leaves the stock tightly linked to chipmakers’ capital spending cycles. (Reuters)
But leadership shuffles and lab deals rarely change orders overnight. Lam still depends on chipmakers’ spending plans, and any pullback — or tighter export rules — can show up quickly in tool demand.
Traders head into Wednesday watching for a deal in Washington to reopen the United States government and clear the way for delayed labor data. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the January employment report will not be released on Friday as planned until funding resumes. (Reuters)
For Lam, the next company-specific marker is the March 6 COO handover, when Varadarajan steps in and Rammohan’s expanded remit takes hold.
