What smart money is saying about Applied Materials
AMAT · Technology · Semiconductors · Market cap $420.53B
13 funds in our archive have pitched Applied Materials — most recently Guinness Global Innovators Fund in July 2026.
Company profile
Applied Materials, Inc. engages in provision of materials engineering solutions used to produce semiconductors. The firm also focuses on design, development, production, and servicing of the critical wafer fabrication tools used for customers to manufacture semiconductors. It operates through the following segments: Semiconductor Systems and Applied Global Services (AGS). The Semiconductor Systems segment includes designing, development, manufacturing and sale of equipment used to fabricate semiconductor chips referred to as integrated circuits. The AGS segment engages in provision of services, spares, and factory automation software to customer fabrication plants globally. The company was founded on November 10, 1967 and is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA.
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34
Reported positions
3
Bought
12
Sold
47
Letters
Position history
Between Q4 2024 and Q3 2026, 34 fund letters reported a position in Applied Materials — 3 opened or added to the position, 12 trimmed or exited.
| Quarter | Letters | Bought | Sold | Theses |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q3 2026 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Q2 2026 | 26 | 3 | 9 | 5 |
| Q1 2026 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Q4 2025 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Q3 2025 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Q2 2025 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Q4 2024 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
Fund activity · 34 positions · 15 moves
- August 2026
“KLA (-39.4% USD), Lam Research (-32.4% USD), Applied Materials (-29.8% USD) It was an extraordinary H1 for the Fund’s three semiconductor equipment manufacturers, each of which delivered returns over 100%. However, they ended July as the Fund’s bottom-performing holdings in the context of a broad pull-back in semiconductor sentiment, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (the ‘SOX’) falling 20.6%. Over 2026, these stocks were viewed as some of the key beneficiaries of rising capex expectations from the hyperscalers. Each is exposed to a different area of the semiconductor manufacturing value chain and is an industry leader in its space. Lam Research is a specialist in etch and deposition (adding, patterning, and removing materials on a silicon wafer). KLA is focused on process control (monitoring and identifying areas to increase yield and ensure quality), and Applied Materials is a larger but broader player, which competes not only in etch and deposition and process control, but also front-end (transistor and interconnect formation, chemical mechanical planarization, etc.) and back-end processes (advanced packaging). The AI infrastructure build-out is a significant tailwind for these firms as hyperscalers require greater volumes of increasingly complex chips, driving chipmakers to invest heavily in capacity and cutting-edge technologies. STOCK PERFORMANCE OVER JULY 14 Guinness Global Innovators August 2026 Source: Bloomberg. Data as of 31.07.2026 As discussed earlier in this commentary, semiconductor sentiment suffered during the month amid concerns that the AI rally had run too far too fast, questions over the sustainability of hyperscaler capex, the risk of future oversupply as chipmakers unveiled aggressive expansion plans, and continued progress from Chinese AI players – in particular, Moonshot, whose latest model, Kimi K3 introduced questions over the trajectory of hyperscaler spending plans. These concerns were compounded by the unwind of the highly leveraged hedge fund Situational Awareness. From a stock-specific perspective, however, fundamentals remained strong, with both KLA and Lam Research reporting robust results during the month. KLA delivered another beat-and-raise quarter, supported by strong growth in its core process-control business, services and advanced packaging, while management once again upgraded its expectations for industry spending on wafer fabrication equipment (WFE). Importantly, KLA’s backlog rose materially, and management expects growth to accelerate into 2027 as new fab capacity comes online and spending broadens across leading-edge logic, DRAM/HBM and advanced packaging. Lam Research also reported an exceptional quarter, with record revenues, 20-year-high gross margins and guidance materially ahead of consensus. Growth was broad-based across NAND, DRAM and leading-edge Foundry/Logic, while continued share gains in etch and deposition, alongside strong growth in its installed-base services business, left Lam particularly well positioned to benefit from rising semiconductor manufacturing complexity and higher capital intensity. Applied Materials is yet to report its latest results, with earnings due on 13 August.”
Applied Materials - July 2026
Listed in Guinness Global Innovators Fund’s reported holdings.
Applied Materials - ExitedVlatava fund Vltava Fund SICAV, plcJune 2026
“We sold the troika Lam Research, Applied Materials, and KLA Corporation, all of which are key suppliers of manufacturing equipment and process control solutions for the semiconductor industry.”
Applied Materials - TrimmedIronvine Capital Partners Quarterly Investor LetterJune 2026
“As a result, we’ve been lowering our collective exposure in recent weeks. Specifically, we sold portions of our Applied Materials, Analog Devices, and Amphenol investments across Ironvine strategies during the second quarter.”
Applied Materials - June 2026
“What are our Fund holdings saying? LAM Research (semiconductor capital equipment) "In January, we shared our outlook for 2026 WFE [wafer fabrication equipment] in the $135 billion range. Since then, spending projections from customers have moved higher across all device segments. We now expect WFE of $140 billion with a bias to the upside as the industry continues to work through various constraints." - Timothy M. Archer, CEO Applied Materials (semiconductor capital equipment)”
Applied Materials - June 2026
“We also modestly trimmed the Technology names Alphabet (Google), Applied Materials, Qualcomm, and Generac (mostly in tax-exempt accounts) as these positions had become oversized because of significant stock price appreciation.”
Applied Materials - HoldsFindlay Park American FundJune 2026
“Other strong contributors included KLA, Applied Materials, Entegris and Keysight, which provide critical equipment, materials, testing and measurement capabilities to the semiconductor ecosystem.”
Applied Materials - TrimmedHosking PartnersJune 2026
Listed in Hosking Partners’s reported holdings.
Applied Materials - June 2026
“While technology remained an important contributor, returns were generated across multiple sectors and investment themes. Taiwan Semiconductor, Applied Materials, Analog Devices, NVIDIA, Astera Labs and Seagate contributed meaningfully as part of our Compute Infrastructure theme.”
Applied Materials - June 2026
“Performance commentary The performance of the fund was behind the benchmark over the quarter. The relative high weighting in the energy sector contributed to the underperformance during a period in which energy stocks gave back some gains from the previous quarter, after agreement appeared to have been struck to end the US conflict with Iran and the ‘war premium’ in commodity prices faded. Some of the fund’s best performers over the quarter were stocks benefiting from investors’ increasingly positive view on the semiconductor cycle and AI-related demand. Holdings in Micron, Applied Materials, KLA Corp and Lam Research were among the main positive contributors.”
Applied Materials - June 2026
“Portfolio performance was also notably broad-based. While technology remained an important contributor, returns were generated across multiple sectors and investment themes. Taiwan Semiconductor, Applied Materials, Analog Devices, NVIDIA, Astera Labs and Seagate contributed meaningfully as part of our Compute Infrastructure theme.”
Applied Materials - TrimmedBCV Asset Management Antares Total Return StrategiesJune 2026
“Applied Materials deserves a special mention as likely the most cyclical of the three. Exposed to the unprecedented AI infrastructure build-out, this business was underappreciated just one year ago. As of June 30, the stock price was ~230% higher from one year ago. Mindful of the cyclical nature of this business and its historical peak-to-trough price actions, we reduced our position to lock in gains, and redeployed capital into areas of the market we believe have a better risk-to-reward ratio.”
Applied Materials - HoldsOakmark FundJune 2026
Listed in Oakmark Fund’s reported holdings.
Applied Materials - June 2026
Listed in Hosking Partners Strategy’s reported holdings.
Applied Materials - June 2026
“NVIDIA, Micron, Broadcom, AMD, Applied Materials, Seagate, Western Digital, Corning, SiTime, TSMC, ASML, and Sandisk were among the positions that contributed to the quarter’s technology-led gains.”
Applied Materials - June 2026
“Applied Materials (AMAT) traded up with the rest of the wafer fab equipment (WFE) providers on a strong 2Q26 report and forward guidance.”
Applied Materials - June 2026
“Applied Materials contributed to performance in the second quarter following strong quarterly results and significant customer announcements that reinforced the multi-year growth demand outlook from AI compute and infrastructure, particularly the memory upcycle leveraged to AI and high-bandwidth memory (HBM).”
Applied Materials - June 2026
“Semiconductor equipment inflected too: Applied Materials rose 63% in June as last quarter’s wafer fab equipment call came through.”
Applied Materials - June 2026
“Semiconductor equipment inflected too: Applied Materials rose 63% in June as last quarter’s wafer fab equipment call came through.”
Applied Materials - June 2026
“Applied Materials (+83%, including a 42% rise in June alone) rallied as the wafer fab equipment recovery we flagged in the first quarter arrived, centred on leading edge deposition, etch and advanced packaging. Applied Materials was exited after the June surge and Elite Material halved.”
Applied Materials - June 2026
“The full arc of our process played out in Applied Materials (+95%). We added through the first quarter’s selloff, arguing the equipment cycle had inflected: guidance for more than 20% growth in semiconductor equipment revenue this year, powered by the industry’s two most equipment intensive transitions, 2 nanometre logic and HBM, where equipment intensity runs three to four times conventional DRAM, and the number one position in both. The stock then nearly doubled. We exited in June: the gap between price and value that drew us in had closed, and the capital was needed elsewhere.”
Applied Materials - June 2026
“At an individual stock level, semiconductor company Applied Materials was the largest contributor to portfolio performance in the second quarter, after reporting solid operating results with broad-based growth across all segments and financial metrics.”
Applied Materials - June 2026
“The full arc of our process played out in Applied Materials (+95%). We added through the first quarter’s selloff, arguing the equipment cycle had inflected: guidance for more than 20% growth in semiconductor equipment revenue this year, powered by the industry’s two most equipment intensive transitions, 2 nanometre logic and HBM, where equipment intensity runs three to four times conventional DRAM, and the number one position in both. The stock then nearly doubled. We exited in June: the gap between price and value that drew us in had closed, and the capital was needed elsewhere.”
Applied Materials - June 2026
“The buildout’s physical substrate ran just as hot. Every GPU baseboard rests on sheets of copper clad laminate, and Elite Material (+107%), the Taiwanese specialist at that layer, is one of a handful qualified at the top grades: revenue grew 52% sequentially to TWD33.1 billion, high end laminate is sold out through 2026, each grade transition carries a 30% to 50% price uplift, and capacity is being expanded to 9.45 million sheets per month by end 2027. Applied Materials (+83%, including a 42% rise in June alone) rallied as the wafer fab equipment recovery we flagged in the first quarter arrived, centred on leading edge deposition, etch and advanced packaging. Applied Materials was exited after the June surge and Elite Material halved.”
Applied Materials - June 2026
“PORTFOLIO CHANGES Nine positions were added to the strategy in the second quarter.”
Applied Materials - HoldsJAG Capital Management Large Cap Growth PortfolioJune 2026
“Our positions in leading semiconductor companies provided a tailwind to performance, led by Micron (MU), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Applied Materials (AMAT), and Intel (INTC).”
Applied Materials - AddedHennessy Focus FundJune 2026
“Nearly five years ago, we initiated a position in Applied Materials (AMAT) based on a compelling long-term outlook for wafer fab equipment (WFE) spending and the resilient, oligopolistic structure of the semiconductor capital equipment (semicap) industry.”
Applied Materials - May 2026
“The main drivers the Q2-result were again the healthy overweight in semiconductor, cyber security and communications stocks. The best performers were Applied Materials, Tokyo Electron and Fortinet, and which were all up between 88% and 113% in Q2 alone.”
Applied Materials - March 2026
“We also trimmed our positions in Kimberly-Clark, Applied Materials, Omnicom, Merck, Ameriprise Financial, Gen Digital, American Express, Carlyle Group, Chubb.”
Applied Materials - March 2026
“We also trimmed our positions in Omnicon, Applied Materials, Roche and Comcast”
Applied Materials - March 2026
“Information Technology, Communication Services, and Consumer Discretionary were the leading contributors to performance during the first quarter. Both Dell Technologies (DELL) and TD SYNNEX (SNX) posted strong quarterly results and gave better than consensus expected outlooks for the remainder of 2026. Applied Materials (AMAT) is benefiting from accelerating capex trends across its core customer base.”
Applied Materials - March 2026
“Information Technology, Communication Services, and Consumer Discretionary were the leading contributors to performance during the first quarter. Both Dell Technologies (DELL) and TD SYNNEX (SNX) posted strong quarterly results and gave better than consensus expected outlooks for the remainder of 2026. Applied Materials (AMAT) is benefiting from accelerating capex trends across its core customer base.”
Applied Materials - March 2026
“Applied Materials: AMAT was the portfolio’s top contributor for the quarter, advancing 33% as its strong fiscal Q1 2026 earnings report, released on February 12, significantly outperformed expectations.”
Applied Materials - TrimmedClipper FundDecember 2025
“Our technology holdings were big contributors to our 2025 results. Based on the strong market gains, we trimmed certain holdings like Meta and Applied Materials.”
Applied Materials
Also mentioned · 7
These funds discuss Applied Materials — as a competitor, benchmark or comparable — without disclosing a position in it.
- July 2026
“The Information Technology (IT) sector fell as shares of AI-related companies declined, including semiconductor equipment companies ASML in the Netherlands and Applied Materials in the US, semiconductor business AMD in the US, and memory chip manufacturers Kioxia Holdings in Japan and Micron Technology in the US.”
Applied Materials - MentionedGeneration IM Global Equity StrategyJuly 2026
“Perhaps most troubling, the largest gains among semiconductor stocks have come from those companies with the greatest cyclicality and the least competitive differentiation. Many businesses we cover, such as Texas Instruments, ASML and Applied Materials, trade on multiples that are stretched versus their own histories and are therefore fraught with risk.”
Applied Materials - MentionedDeep Sail Capital PartnersJune 2026
“Within the ATS segment, Celestica supports highly complex capital equipment, aerospace, and defense programs for Tier-1 customers such as Applied Materials, Honeywell, Lam Research, and Raytheon.”
Applied Materials - June 2026
“Portfolio Highlights The ClearBridge Appreciation Strategy underperformed the benchmark S&P 500 Index in the second quarter of 2026. On an absolute basis, the Strategy had positive contributions from eight of 11 sectors. The IT sector was the main positive contributor, while energy was the main detractor. In relative terms, stock selection and sector allocation detracted. Stock selection in IT, industrials, communication services, financials and consumer discretionary, overweights to materials and energy and an IT underweight detracted the most. Conversely, stock selection in materials and a consumer discretionary underweight were beneficial. On an individual stock basis, the biggest relative contributors during the quarter were ASML, Palo Alto Networks, ASM International, an underweight to Microsoft and not owning Palantir. The biggest detractors were Netflix, underweights to Micron Technology and Advanced Micro Devices, and not owning Intel and Applied Materials.”
Applied Materials - MentionedGuinness Global Quality Mid Cap FundJune 2026
“BESI: the packaging powerhouse behind ASML's headlines As the sole supplier of extreme ultraviolet lithography, ASML occupies perhaps the most strategically irreplaceable position in the chip industry, and is a natural anchor for investors seeking semiconductor exposure. But as chip architectures approach the physical limits of traditional scaling, the industry’s next frontier is shifting from how transistors are patterned onto a wafer to how multiple chips are assembled and interconnected in the package. This is the domain of advanced packaging, where BE Semiconductor Industries (BESI) has built a quiet dominance: it holds roughly 42% of the global die- attach market and an estimated 67% of the fast-growing hybrid-bonding segment, where nanometre-level tolerances demand exactly the precision engineering in which it excels. With AI accelerators, high-bandwidth memory and co- packaged optics all requiring increasingly sophisticated packaging, BESI is becoming essential infrastructure within the AI build-out rather than merely a beneficiary of it – a position validated by the 9% strategic stake Applied Materials acquired in 2025.”
Applied Materials - MentionedBlue Whale Growth FundJune 2026
“Applied Materials’ expertise in modifying materials at atomic levels and on an industrial scale ensures its equipment is used to produce virtually every new chip and advanced display in the world.”
Applied Materials - MentionedBristolgate U.S. Equity StrategyJune 2026
“Contributors Applied Materials and KLA Corp were the largest contributors in the quarter followed by Amphenol.”
Applied Materials
Fund coverage · 13 theses
- Guinness Global Innovators FundJuly 2026
Applied Materials benefits from AI-driven semiconductor capex and is seen as well positioned to capture share across the chip manufacturing stack.
Read the full thesis - Ironvine Capital PartnersJune 2026
Applied Materials is tied to structurally attractive semiconductor spending, but higher valuations now require sustained 2027–2028 capex levels.
Read the full thesis Applied Materials is positioned to benefit from multi-year AI and memory-related wafer fab equipment growth, with leading exposure to key end markets and strong customer capex plans.
Read the full thesis- Liontrust GF Global Dividend FundJune 2026
Applied Materials benefits from an inflecting semiconductor equipment cycle driven by 2nm logic and HBM, with strong long-term compounding.
Read the full thesis - Blue Whale Growth FundJune 2026
Applied Materials provides essential atomic-scale materials engineering equipment used across nearly all advanced chip and display manufacturing.
Read the full thesis - Hennessy Focus FundJune 2026
Applied Materials is a semicap oligopoly leader with a technological moat, recurring services, and strong AI-driven demand tailwinds.
Read the full thesis - Alpha Wealth FundsMarch 2026
Applied Materials is a dominant semiconductor equipment provider poised to benefit from the AI capex 'giga-cycle' and advanced packaging demand.
Read the full thesis Applied Materials is positioned as a structurally advantaged semiconductor equipment company benefiting from AI-driven demand and strong cash generation.
Read the full thesis- Brown Advisory Beutel Goodman US Value FundSeptember 2025
Applied Materials Inc. is poised for long-term growth due to its leading position in the semiconductor capital equipment market and expanding Service & Parts business, despite facing near-term headwinds.
Read the full thesis Applied Materials is poised for growth due to its dominant position in semiconductor manufacturing, favorable market trends, and strong insider support.
Read the full thesisApplied Materials Inc. is an undervalued leader in materials-engineering solutions for semiconductors, with strong long-term earnings potential driven by AI, advanced packaging, and a growing services segment despite current market concerns.
Read the full thesis- Matrix Asset AdvisorsJune 2025
Applied Materials is a strong investment poised to benefit from the rising demand for advanced semiconductor manufacturing due to AI and high-performance computing, supported by its robust cash flow and strategic positioning.
Read the full thesis - Parnassus Value Equity FundDecember 2024
Applied Materials is ideally positioned to outperform competitors due to its scale and innovation in materials engineering, particularly as AI advancements drive recovery in non-AI semiconductor markets.
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