The semiconductor equipment industry is on the verge of a significant shift as two industry giants, Applied Materials and Lam Research, are reportedly pursuing an acquisition of BE Semiconductor (Besi). This move is driven by the critical importance of Besi's exclusive advanced packaging technology, known as hybrid bonding, which has become essential for AI chips and high-performance data center memory systems like HBM amid the global AI boom.
According to media reports citing informed sources, Netherlands-based Besi is collaborating with Wall Street investment bank Morgan Stanley to evaluate acquisition inquiries it has received. One source indicated that Lam Research has already submitted an acquisition proposal, while another confirmed Applied Materials also holds strong interest. In April 2025, Applied Materials acquired approximately 9% of Besi's shares, describing the stake as a "strategic, long-term investment" reflecting its commitment to jointly developing the industry's most capable hybrid bonding packaging solutions—a technology increasingly vital for advancing the capacity and architecture of the logic and memory chips that form the foundation of AI training and inference systems.
Separately, Applied Materials recently announced a 15% increase in its quarterly dividend to $0.53 per share, up from $0.46. Earlier, the company, alongside memory leader Micron Technology and South Korea-based SK Hynix, revealed a major collaboration to develop cutting-edge solutions and upgrade roadmaps for DRAM, HBM, and data center NAND storage systems, aiming to boost overall memory chip capacity and enhance the performance of AI systems.
In its latest earnings report from February, Applied Materials delivered better-than-expected quarterly results and provided a robust outlook, underscoring that semiconductor equipment makers are entering a period of strong growth fueled by global AI infrastructure expansion and a "memory chip super-cycle." The company projected fiscal second-quarter 2026 revenue of approximately $7.65 billion, plus or minus $500 million, significantly above analysts' average estimate of $7.03 billion. Its non-GAAP earnings per share guidance for the quarter ranged from $2.44 to $2.84, also well above the consensus estimate of $2.29.
Hybrid bonding has emerged as a critical technology in the "post-Moore's Law" era, driving continued improvements in computing power by directly determining the performance limits of integrated systems. The technology has evolved from wire bonding and flip-chip methods to today's hybrid bonding, which enables ultra-fine interconnect pitches below 10 micrometers by replacing traditional bumps with direct copper-to-copper bonding. This results in orders-of-magnitude improvements in interconnect density, bandwidth, energy efficiency, and cost per connection, making it essential for 3D stacking and heterogeneous integration.
Besi's hybrid bonding equipment is widely adopted by leading chipmakers including TSMC, SK Hynix, and Samsung, and is used in advanced packaging processes for both 2.5D CoWoS and more advanced 3D/3.5D packaging. As AI-era bottlenecks shift from individual transistors to data transfer efficiency between chiplets, logic, and memory, hybrid bonding’s ability to shorten interconnect lengths and enhance density becomes decisive for high-performance computing chips like GPUs, AI ASICs, and CPU-accelerator combinations. It is also increasingly critical for HBM and high-end enterprise storage, particularly for future generations requiring higher layers, greater bandwidth, and lower power consumption.
Applied Materials has highlighted that its Kinex platform is designed for future HBM and logic-memory integration, demonstrating capabilities for stacking 16 or more DRAM layers. Besi, meanwhile, notes that customer roadmaps aim to incorporate hybrid bonding into HBM4 and HBM4e within the next two years. The technology is also gaining relevance in co-packaged optics (CPO) applications for high-performance Ethernet switches, where integrating optical engines with switch chips improves power efficiency and supports large-scale AI cluster expansion.
The competition for Besi is not merely a routine acquisition but a strategic battle for control over bottleneck equipment in the AI era. Besi’s high-precision hybrid bonding tools represent a稀缺 advanced packaging asset. As tech giants like Microsoft, Google, and Meta accelerate construction of hyperscale AI data centers, driving demand for sub-3nm AI chips, advanced packaging capacity, and memory chip expansion, the long-term growth outlook for semiconductor equipment remains robust. Analysts project that combined AI-related capital expenditure by Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Oracle, and Microsoft could reach approximately $650 billion by 2026, with some estimates exceeding $700 billion—representing a potential year-over-year increase of over 70%.
Should either Applied Materials or Lam Research succeed in acquiring Besi, the semiconductor equipment industry landscape would undergo a major transformation. This would also signify that advanced packaging has evolved from a back-end process to a core battleground on par with front-end manufacturing. For Applied Materials, integrating Besi’s bonding technology with its existing cleaning, activation, metrology, and integration platforms would create a comprehensive hybrid bonding solution. For Lam Research, it would mean extending its expertise in TSV, RDL, high-aspect-ratio etching/deposition, and hybrid bonding support tools deeper into the most valuable segments of advanced packaging.
Regardless of the outcome, the industry is moving toward a future where competition in AI and memory chips will depend not only on advancements in EUV, etching, and deposition equipment but also on which company can master the challenging final step of advanced packaging and turn it into a formidable competitive advantage.
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