AMAT Rides on AI Demand: Will Logic and DRAM Strength Last?

Applied Materials AMAT is benefiting from rising demand for AI infrastructure, with its Logic and DRAM businesses gaining traction. Since AI operations need both logic chips to process AI workloads and memory chips to store the data, global semiconductor companies are competing to be the first-to-market to deliver major architecture innovations in logic, compute memory and packaging for AI workloads.

These factors are increasing the demand for fabrication, patterning and advanced packaging systems, creating opportunities for AMAT. Other technologies like next-generation gate-all-around transistors, backside power delivery, 4F2 and 3D DRAM, which are going to be critical for AI workload, will further drive AMAT’s growth.

AMAT’s Sym3 Magnum etch system is also gaining traction because of its capability to develop high-aspect-ratio structures in 3D NAND, DRAM and logic, which are powering AI and HPC workloads. Its Sym3 Magnum etch system has generated more than $1.2 billion in revenues since its launch in February 2024.

The Cold Field Emission eBeam technology, which enables manufacturers to detect defects at the nanometer scale, is also expected to gain traction as chips miniaturize to support AI. Coming to DRAM, the management has projected that revenues from its advanced DRAM customers to grow more than 40% in fiscal 2025. The growth is likely to be driven by an increase in demand for AMAT’s DDR5 and high-bandwidth memory used in AI workloads.

How Competitors Fare Against AMAT

Lam Research’s LRCX memory segment, accounting for both Dynamic Random Access Memory and Non-Volatile Memory divisions, is gaining traction on the back of AI. In the third quarter of fiscal 2025, LRCX’s memory segment revenues jumped nearly 24% year over year to $1.31 billion, while the NVM division’s sales grew approximately 21% year over year in the third quarter. Both DRAM and NAND revenues were driven by growth in chip demand to support the massive storage and input-output speeds required for AI workloads.

The rising demand for AI chips is also ramping up the demand for advanced process control and process-enabling solutions provided by KLA Corporation KLAC. KLAC’s advanced packaging solutions are also experiencing robust traction on the back of AI and high-performance computing. The company, in its third-quarter fiscal 2025 earnings, projected that its advanced packaging business will touch $850 million in 2025 from $500 million in 2024.

AMAT’s Price Performance, Valuation and Estimates

Shares of Applied Materials have gained 19.9% year to date compared with the Electronics - Semiconductors industry’s growth of 13.3%.

AMAT YTD Performance Chart

From a valuation standpoint, Applied Materials trades at a forward price-to-sales ratio of 5.23X, lower than the industry’s average of 8.6X.

AMAT Forward 12 Months (P/S) Valuation Chart

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Applied Materials’ fiscal 2025 and 2026 earnings implies year-over-year growth of 9.48% and 5.60%, respectively. The estimates for fiscal 2026 and 2027 have been revised upward in the past 60 days.

Applied Materials currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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