Besi: The Partner It Owns 9% OfNarrow moat

Applied Materials (AMAT) — moat facet

Applied bought 9% of Besi so that it shares in hybrid bonding without having to build the bonding tools itself.

In one part of advanced packaging, Applied decided to become a shareholder. In April 2025 it "purchased 9 percent of the outstanding shares" of BE Semiconductor Industries, the Dutch maker of packaging equipment known as Besi1. The two have collaborated on hybrid bonding, a way of joining chips face to face, since 20202, and Applied said it does not intend to seek board representation3.

Publicly traded equity securities, July 2026 ($M)965Cost1,979Fair valueApplied Materials Form 10-Q Q3 FY2026
The stakes are worth twice what they cost.

This is a different relationship from the others. Besi makes bonding tools; Applied makes the deposition, etch and planarization steps that prepare wafers for bonding. Together they offer a combined process; separately each would need the other.

The stake has also been profitable on paper. Applied's publicly traded equity securities were worth $1,979 million at July 2026 against a cost of $965 million4. Those marks move Applied's reported earnings, as the danger on strategic stakes explains.

Applied has made other small purchases alongside the stake. It paid $262 million in cash for acquisitions in the first nine months of fiscal 20265. Buying stakes and small companies lets Applied add steps without the regulatory risk of a large acquisition, a risk made concrete when the Kokusai purchase was terminated at a cost of a $154 million fee6.

Advanced packaging is where the partnership points. Applied's newest tools in the quarter to July 2026 were designed for stacked memory and chiplets7, the same products that need hybrid bonding. A customer building those products may buy the preparation steps from Applied and the bonding from Besi, and the stake means Applied gains either way.

An investment is a way to share in a step without building it. The thing to watch is whether the collaboration produces orders: hybrid bonding tools appearing in Applied's packaging revenue, rather than only in the value of its stake, would show the partnership is working.

Moat trajectory: Widening

Stake bought April 2025; collaboration since 2020.

The number that tests this moat
Reported
Fair value of publicly traded equity securities
$1,979M against a cost of $965M (26 July 2026)

The value of the strategic stakes, Besi the largest; a fall below cost would say the bet on packaging has not paid.

Source: Applied Materials Form 10-Q, Q3 FY2026 ↗
References
  1. ReportedIn April 2025 it "purchased 9 percent of the outstanding shares" of BE Semiconductor Industries, the Dutch maker of packaging equipment known as Besi.
    Applied Materials Form 8-K exhibit 99.1 - purchase of 9 percent of the outstanding shares of BE Semiconductor Industries N.V. (Besi); hybrid-bonding collaboration since 2020. — April 2025 · publ. 14 April 2025 · source ↗
  2. ReportedThe two have collaborated on hybrid bonding, a way of joining chips face to face, since 2020, and Applied said it does not intend to seek board representation.
    Applied Materials Form 8-K exhibit 99.1 - purchase of 9 percent of the outstanding shares of BE Semiconductor Industries N.V. (Besi); hybrid-bonding collaboration since 2020. — April 2025 · publ. 14 April 2025 · source ↗
  3. ReportedThe two have collaborated on hybrid bonding, a way of joining chips face to face, since 2020, and Applied said it does not intend to seek board representation.
    Applied Materials Form 8-K exhibit 99.1 - purchase of 9 percent of the outstanding shares of BE Semiconductor Industries N.V. (Besi); hybrid-bonding collaboration since 2020. — April 2025 · publ. 14 April 2025 · source ↗
  4. ReportedApplied's publicly traded equity securities were worth $1,979 million at July 2026 against a cost of $965 million.
    Applied Materials Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 26 July 2026 - FY2026 segment basis (200mm moved to Semiconductor Systems), nine-month results, customer concentration, geography, the BIS settlement and the balance sheet - balance sheet, investments and liquidity. — Q3 FY2026 · publ. 20 August 2026 · source ↗
  5. ReportedIt paid $262 million in cash for acquisitions in the first nine months of fiscal 2026.
    Applied Materials Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 26 July 2026 - FY2026 segment basis (200mm moved to Semiconductor Systems), nine-month results, customer concentration, geography, the BIS settlement and the balance sheet - balance sheet, investments and liquidity. — Q3 FY2026 · publ. 20 August 2026 · source ↗
  6. ReportedBuying stakes and small companies lets Applied add steps without the regulatory risk of a large acquisition, a risk made concrete when the Kokusai purchase was terminated at a cost of a $154 million fee.
    Applied Materials Form 10-K for fiscal 2022 - segment results for FY2020-FY2022 including Display and Adjacent Markets, employees, China revenue, the Kokusai termination fee and backlog. — FY2022 · publ. December 2022 · source ↗
  7. ReportedApplied's newest tools in the quarter to July 2026 were designed for stacked memory and chiplets, the same products that need hybrid bonding.
    Applied Materials third-quarter fiscal 2026 results release, Form 8-K exhibit 99.1 - record revenue, segment results, revenue by geography, employees and fourth-quarter guidance - highlights, income statement, cash flow, quotes and fourth-quarter guidance. — Q3 FY2026 · publ. 13 August 2026 · source ↗
Sources
Generated September 25, 2026