Applied Materials

Deposition, etch, ion implantation and metrology tools carrying the Applied Materials name reach into nearly every leading-edge chip fabrication line; the Santa Clara, California company traces its founding to 1967 and now holds the largest revenue share among semiconductor process-equipment suppliers. Its customer roster runs from TSMC to Samsung and SK Hynix, and Applied Materials UK Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary, handles research into factory automation software and compound semiconductors.

Growth here increasingly tracks the shift to gate-all-around transistors and the high-bandwidth memory AI accelerators need, a shift chief executive Gary Dickerson calls the company's defining opportunity of the decade. Applied Materials is backing that shift with equity as well as tools: June 2026 saw it return as an investor in PhysicsX's $300m Series c, a relationship first built at that company's earlier round, and on 20 July 2026 CuspAI listed it among more than 45 founding partners in its newly launched AI Materials Foundry.

For a company whose customers run costly physical wafer trials before certifying a new process, these minority positions buy information rather than returns: shortening process-development time matters more to Applied Materials than the size of any single stake.