BE Semiconductor (BESI) Stock Jumps 9% as Applied Materials Plans to Lift Stake to 20%
Key Takeaways
- •Applied Materials intends to increase its holding in BE Semiconductor Industries to approximately 20% from its current 9% using an accelerated share purchase agreement.
- •BESI shares climbed more than 8% on the announcement, while Applied Materials stock gained about 3%.
- •Delivery of the additional shares remains subject to the expiration of the U.S. Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust waiting period.
- •The companies have worked together since 2020 on hybrid bonding and are now collaborating on 3D IC scaling, interconnect designs, and die-assembly platforms through Applied Materials' EPIC Center.
- •Applied Materials described the move as a long-term investment and said it will not raise its stake beyond roughly 20% or seek a seat on Besi's board.
Shares of BE Semiconductor Industries N.V. (BESI) climbed more than 8% on Tuesday, trading up about 9% at the time of reporting, after Applied Materials (AMAT) announced plans to increase its stake in the Dutch semiconductor equipment maker to approximately 20%, up from its current 9%. Applied Materials shares gained about 3% on the same news. The move deepens the relationship between the two semiconductor equipment companies at a time when advanced packaging plays a growing role in producing chips for AI systems.
Applied Materials Moves to Nearly Double Its Holding
Applied Materials said on Monday that it intends to lift its holding in Besi to roughly 20%. The U.S. company is already the Dutch firm's largest shareholder. To acquire the additional shares, Applied Materials entered into an accelerated share purchase agreement covering the added Besi stock, a structure used to take on a large block of shares quickly rather than accumulating them through gradual open-market buying.
Delivery of the shares is not yet guaranteed. It remains subject to the expiration or termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, the U.S. antitrust review process that applies to acquisitions. That process gives U.S. regulators a defined window to examine large transactions for potential competition concerns, meaning the stake increase cannot be completed until the review runs its course.
Applied Materials first invested in Besi in April 2025, a purchase that established the 9% position it holds today. The two companies have worked together since 2020, with their collaboration centered on hybrid bonding, a key advanced packaging method used in the production of high-performance chips. Unlike conventional approaches that rely on solder microbumps, hybrid bonding joins chip dies directly at the metal level, allowing far denser connections between stacked chips. Hybrid bonding has become an increasingly important technique as chipmakers push deeper into advanced packaging.
A Deeper Partnership
The relationship expanded recently when Besi joined Applied Materials' EPIC Center as an Innovation Partner, plugging the Dutch firm into Applied Materials' collaborative research hub for next-generation process and equipment development. The joint work now extends beyond hybrid bonding to new interconnect designs and applications that support the AI-driven push in chip scaling, with both companies targeting next-generation AI semiconductors.
Dr. Prabu Raja, President of the Semiconductor Products Group at Applied Materials, explained the rationale behind the collaboration. He said hybrid bonding and next-generation interconnect designs are becoming increasingly important for energy-efficient AI computing.
According to the companies, specific areas of work include 3D IC scaling, logic and memory integration, and thermo-compression bonding. The two firms will also develop die-on-wafer, die-on-die, and die-on-panel integration platforms, the assembly approaches used to place individual chip dies onto wafers, onto other dies, or onto larger panels in advanced packaging production.
What Applied Materials Says It Wants
Applied Materials described the investment as long term. It said it has no plans to increase its stake beyond roughly 20% and does not intend to seek a seat on Besi's board. The additional shares therefore come without a say in how Besi is run, a structure that leaves the Dutch company's board unchanged while giving Applied Materials a larger position in a partner it already knows well and aligning the two companies financially around the technology they are developing together.
Reuters reported the news late Monday in the United States. Investing.com followed on Tuesday with the share price movements in both companies.
The next milestone is the antitrust waiting period. Once it expires or ends, delivery of the additional Besi shares can go ahead, taking Applied Materials from a 9% position to roughly one in five shares in the Dutch equipment maker.
This article originally appeared on CoinCentral.
