Applied Materials

A group of entrepreneurs founded Applied Materials in 1967, initially as a chemical supply company.⁠[1]

In its early years the company made chemical vapor deposition (CVD) systems for semiconductor wafer fabrication.⁠[2]

The company went public in 1972. After an industry recession in the mid-1970s, management changed and James C. Morgan became president and chief executive officer. It introduced the Precision 5000 CVD system in 1987, and with 1993 sales of $1.08 billion it became the first semiconductor equipment company to pass $1 billion in revenue.⁠[2]

Mike Splinter served as chief executive officer from 2003.⁠[3]

On November 10, 2011, Applied Materials completed its acquisition of Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates for $63.00 per share in cash, an aggregate price of about $4.2 billion net of cash acquired. Varian, a leader in ion implantation technology, became a business unit based in Gloucester, Massachusetts.⁠[4]

On August 15, 2013, the company announced that its president, Gary E. Dickerson, would succeed Splinter as CEO on September 1, with Splinter becoming executive chairman. Dickerson had been CEO of Varian Semiconductor for seven years.⁠[3]

Applied Materials and Tokyo Electron Limited signed a business combination agreement on September 24, 2013, and agreed to terminate it on April 26, 2015 (April 27 in Japan).⁠[5]

The U.S. Department of Justice advised the parties that their coordinated remedy proposal “would not be sufficient to replace the competition lost from the merger,” and they concluded there was “no realistic prospect” of completing it. No termination fee was payable by either party.⁠[6]

Applied Materials’ agreement to acquire Kokusai Electric terminated on March 19, 2021, because Applied did not receive confirmation of timely approval from the regulator in China. On March 29 the company announced it was paying the seller, KKRKKRKKR (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts) is an investment firm engaged in alternative asset management, capital markets services, and insurance. Jerome Kohlberg, Henry Kravis, and George Roberts co-founded the firm in 1976. Its managed funds invest in private equity, credit, and real assets, and its subsidiary Global Atlantic operates retirement, life insurance, and reinsurance businesses. KKR listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2010 under the ticker KKR.Open the full entry, a $154 million cash termination fee.⁠[7]

In October 2022, the company disclosed a subpoena from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts on certain China customer shipments. In November 2023, three people familiar with the matter said the Justice Department was investigating whether it evaded export restrictions on SMIC through equipment sent via a South Korean subsidiary in 2021 and 2022.⁠[8]

The company received a Commerce Department subpoena on certain China customer shipments in November 2023, and in February 2024 it received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission and a new subpoena on China shipments from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts.⁠[9]

On September 29, 2025, the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security issued the BIS Affiliates Rule, expanding the companies subject to U.S. export restrictions. Applied expected it to further limit unlicensed exports of certain products and services to specific China-based customers, cutting net revenue by about $110 million in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025 and $600 million in fiscal 2026.⁠[10]

Applied provides materials engineering solutions for semiconductor production and reports two segments, Semiconductor Systems and Applied Global Services. As of October 26, 2025, it had about 36,500 full-time employees in 25 countries.⁠[11]

In fiscal 2025, net revenue reached a record $28.37 billion, up 4 percent, and GAAP net income was $6.998 billion, or $8.66 per diluted share. Revenue from China was $8.53 billion, falling from 37 percent to 30 percent of the total. Dickerson said the company had delivered its “sixth consecutive year of growth.”⁠[12]

On February 11, 2026, Applied announced a resolution with BIS over allegations that some China customer shipments from November 2020 to July 2022 did not comply with the Export Administration Regulations, agreeing to pay $252.5 million and attributing it to a misunderstanding of the rules. The Justice Department and the SEC closed their related investigations without action.⁠[13]

The penalty of about $252 million, twice the transaction value and the statutory maximum, was the second-highest BIS had ever imposed. About $126 million of ion implanters were assembled at Applied Materials Korea, Ltd. and shipped to an Entity List company in China without an export license being sought. Applied agreed to multiple audits of its export compliance program.⁠[14]

The charges covered 56 violations between November 8, 2020, and July 18, 2022, with the equipment going to SMIC and its subsidiaries, which had been added to the Entity List in December 2020. Under the agreement Applied “admits committing the alleged conduct,” and noncompliance could cost it export privileges for three years.⁠[15]

S&P Dow Jones IndicesS&P Dow Jones IndicesS&P Dow Jones Indices (S&P DJI) is a global index provider that compiles and licenses benchmark indices including the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It was formed in 2012 by combining McGraw-Hill’s S&P index business with the Dow Jones Indexes business held by a joint venture of CME Group and Dow Jones, and it is now the index business division of S&P Global, which holds about 73% of the interest.Open the full entry announced on March 6, 2026, that Applied Materials would join the S&P 100 before the market opened on March 23, 2026.⁠[16]

In the third quarter of fiscal 2026, ended July 26, 2026, net revenue was $9.12 billion, up 25 percent year over year, and GAAP net income rose 43 percent to $2.538 billion, or $3.17 per diluted share. China accounted for 28 percent of revenue, down from 35 percent a year earlier. President and CEO Dickerson said the company had delivered “another record-breaking quarter.”⁠[17]