BE Semiconductor (BESI) Stock Jumps 9% After Applied Materials Plans to Lift Stake to 20%

TLDR

• BE Semiconductor (BESI) stock rose about 9% Tuesday after Applied Materials (AMAT) said it will raise its stake to about 20% from 9%.
• AMAT stock gained about 3% on the day.
• Applied Materials entered an accelerated share purchase agreement for the added Besi shares.
• Delivery depends on the expiration of the U.S. antitrust waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act.
• Applied Materials says it has no plans to go beyond 20% or seek a Besi board seat.

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BE Semiconductor Industries (BESI) stock rose more than 8% on Tuesday, trading up about 9% at the time of the report. Applied Materials (AMAT) stock gained about 3% on the same news.

BE Semiconductor Industries N.V., BESIY

Applied Materials said on Monday that it plans to lift its holding in the Dutch chip equipment maker to about 20% from 9%. The company is already Besi’s largest shareholder.

To get there, Applied Materials entered an accelerated share purchase agreement. That deal covers the additional Besi shares.

Delivery of those shares is not guaranteed yet. It is subject to the expiration or end of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976.

Applied Materials first bought into Besi in April 2025. That purchase gave it the 9% stake it holds now.

The two companies have worked together since 2020. Their main focus has been hybrid bonding, a key advanced packaging method used in high-performance chips.

A Deeper Partnership

The tie-up grew recently when Besi joined Applied Materials’ EPIC Center as an Innovation Partner. The work now goes beyond hybrid bonding.

It also covers new interconnect designs and uses that support the AI-driven push in chip scaling. Both firms are aiming at next-generation AI semiconductors.

Dr. Prabu Raja, President of the Semiconductor Products Group at Applied Materials, explained the reasoning. He said hybrid bonding and next-generation interconnect designs are becoming more important for energy-efficient AI computing.

Specific areas of work include 3D IC scaling, logic and memory integration, and thermo-compression bonding. The firms will also work on die-on-wafer, die-on-die and die-on-panel integration platforms.

What Applied Materials Says It Wants

Applied Materials called the investment long term. It said it has no plans to raise its stake past roughly 20%.

It also said it does not plan to seek a seat on Besi’s board. So the extra shares come without a say in how Besi is run.

That keeps the setup fairly simple. Applied Materials gets a bigger piece of a partner it already knows well, and Besi keeps its board as is.

Reuters reported the news late Monday in the U.S. Investing.com followed with the Tuesday price moves.

The next item to watch is the antitrust waiting period. Once it expires or ends, the delivery of the added Besi shares can go ahead.