By Juby Babu<\/p>\n
May 14 (Reuters) – Applied Materials on Thursday forecast third-quarter revenue and adjusted profit above Wall Street estimates, betting that heavy \u200cspending on data centers and AI infrastructure will sustain strong demand \u200cfor its chip-making tools.<\/p>\n
Shares of the Santa Clara, California-based company, which also beat second-quarter revenue and \u200bprofit estimates, rose 3% in extended trading.<\/p>\n
The ongoing AI boom is benefiting equipment suppliers such as Applied Materials, as building more powerful AI chips requires not only more silicon wafers but also complex manufacturing processes.<\/p>\n
“With rising demand and increasing long-term \u200cvisibility from customers, we see \u2060an exceptionally strong foundation for sustained multi-year revenue and profit growth,” CEO Gary Dickerson said on a post-earnings call.<\/p>\n
The company \u2060expects over 30% growth in its semiconductor equipment business and a more than 50% increase in packaging revenues for 2026.<\/p>\n
The surge in AI computing investment from leading \u200btechnology firms \u200band enterprises is pushing chipmakers such \u200bas TSMC and Samsung to expand \u200ctheir manufacturing capacity, boosting orders for Applied’s sophisticated equipment used to produce and package cutting-edge chips.<\/p>\n
The strong results and forecast reflect a “strengthening of the ongoing AI upcycle for wafer fabrication equipment investments,” William Kerwin, senior equity analyst for technology at Morningstar, said.<\/p>\n
Applied forecast third-quarter revenue of about $8.95 billion, plus or minus $500 \u200cmillion, above analysts’ average estimate of $8.09 billion, \u200baccording to data compiled by LSEG.<\/p>\n
Its adjusted profit \u200bforecast of $3.36 per share, plus \u200bor minus 20 cents, also exceeded the average analyst estimate \u200cof $2.88 per share.<\/p>\n
The company has increased \u200bits build plan, inventory \u200bpositions and logistics capacity, CFO Brice Hill said, as it looks to ensure operational and supply chain readiness.<\/p>\n
For the second quarter ended April \u200b26, Applied reported revenue \u200cof $7.91 billion, above analysts’ average estimate of $7.65 billion.<\/p>\n
Applied’s quarterly adjusted profit of $2.86 \u200bper share also beat an estimate of $2.66.<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Juby Babu \u200bin Mexico City; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Juby Babu May 14 (Reuters) – Applied Materials on Thursday forecast third-quarter revenue and adjusted profit above…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":797152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[691,747,77291,738,134297,230564,158,67,132,68,69192],"class_list":{"0":"post-797151","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-ai-infrastructure","10":"tag-applied-materials","11":"tag-artificial-intelligence","12":"tag-profit-estimates","13":"tag-profit-growth","14":"tag-technology","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-wall-street-estimates"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116576189781723204","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=797151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/797151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/797152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=797151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=797151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=797151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}