Applied Materials expects wafer manufacturing equipment demand to rise roughly 80% this year, driven primarily by AI-related sectors such as advanced logic, high-bandwidth memory and advanced packaging, the company said at the Six Five Summit: AI Unleashed 2026 on Thursday.
The chip equipment maker, which operates the $5 billion EPIC Center in Silicon Valley, also projected advanced packaging growth of more than 50% in 2026. Its services business continues to expand at a 20% compound annual growth rate, reflecting sustained demand for process optimization and maintenance in semiconductor production.
Gary Dickerson, chief executive officer, described AI as "the greatest inflection of our lives," emphasizing its transformative impact across industries and consumer applications. He framed the global competition for AI computing leadership as a strategic imperative, stating, "The race for AI computing leadership is the most important race that will determine who wins and who loses."
Dickerson highlighted the scale of modern chip production, noting that a smartphone processor can contain tens of billions of transistors, approximately 100 kilometers of wiring and more than 1,000 manufacturing steps, at a cost of roughly $30. Future advanced packages may integrate over 300 chips, 500 billion transistors and more than 3,200 kilometers of wiring, underscoring the complexity driving demand for Applied Materials' equipment.
Shares of Applied Materials were trading around $477.12, down 0.61% at the time of the event.
