Wells Fargo: Applied Materials raises Besi stake to 20%, extending collaboration beyond hybrid bonding into more advanced packaging areas

What changes with this stake increase?

Applied Materials announced that it will increase its stake in Besi to 20% of outstanding shares through an accelerated share purchase agreement. The company first invested in April 2025, acquiring a 9% stake.
Wells Fargo estimates that the value of the strategic investment will rise from approximately 1.1 billion euros to approximately 2.2 billion euros. Applied Materials reiterated that it will not seek a board seat or increase its stake further.

The two companies have collaborated since 2020 and plan to expand their joint innovation from hybrid bonding to new interconnect architectures and applications, supporting the semiconductor industry’s AI-driven scaling roadmap.
The collaboration covers 3D IC scaling, logic and memory integration, thermocompression bonding, and chip-to-wafer, chip-to-chip and chip-to-panel integration platforms. This extends the collaboration across more chip connection and integration methods.

Wells Fargo believes the stake increase aligns with Applied Materials’ direction of expanding its advanced packaging portfolio. Earlier this month, the company said advanced packaging revenue could exceed 5 billion dollars in the coming years, with more than 2.4 billion dollars expected in calendar year 2026.
As interconnect technology shifts from microbumps and through-silicon vias to hybrid bonding, the company expects its serviceable market for hybrid bonding to approximately double to between 800 million and 1 billion dollars.
Wells Fargo rates Applied Materials Overweight, saying its portfolio covers approximately 60% of total equipment spending and that co-optimized materials solutions can help it continue to gain share. The bank lists successful deployment of new technologies in customers’ next-generation products and the impact of export restrictions as execution risks.