Applied Materials, Besi Partnership Dating to 2020 Extends to Hybrid Bonding Technologies
Key Facts
Applied Materials and Besi announced on October 1, 2026, that they were expanding their strategic partnership, with Besi joining Applied Materials’ EPIC Center as an innovation partner. The announcement extends a joint development program that the companies said began in 2020. The announced cooperation covers developing new hybrid bonding platforms and expanding thermocompression bonding. It also covers wafer-to-wafer or wafer-to-panel integration structures. The claim that Applied Materials will increase its stake in Besi to about 20% could not be confirmed from an open official source, so it cannot be presented as a settled condition of a new agreement.
The investment background dates to April 2025, when Applied Materials announced it would buy 9% of Besi’s outstanding shares. Besi said at the time that the announcement did not include plans to buy additional shares. That puts the 2025 investment in context, but does not establish that the stake was subsequently increased. The October partnership expansion also confirms technical and institutional cooperation, but does not in itself set the terms of a new investment or its financial impact. Any details concerning a target stake or the timing of its implementation still require verifiable official disclosure.
Besi’s third-quarter 2026 results show growth in the company’s business during the period. Revenue was 283.4 million euros, up 13.4% from the second quarter and 113.6% year on year. Orders totaled 342.6 million euros, up 17% from the previous quarter and 96.1% from the third quarter of 2025. These figures provide context for the performance of a company whose partnership with Applied Materials includes chip-bonding and advanced-packaging technologies. They do not explain the terms of any new investment or link the third-quarter results to an announced agreement to increase the stake.
In the market, Applied Materials shares closed at 377.24 dollars on October 23, 2026. The data used here do not include verified figures for the stock’s session high or low, and this article does not include Besi share performance. The closing price alone therefore does not provide evidence of a market reaction to the circulating investment news. Official disclosures remain necessary to determine whether there is a new deal and what its terms are. Investors are also awaiting Applied Materials’ fourth-quarter and fiscal 2026 results on November 12.