New York, February 14, 2026, 12:16 (EST) — Market closed
Applied Materials (AMAT.O) shares closed Friday up about 8% at $354.91 after the chipmaking-equipment maker forecast second-quarter revenue and profit above Wall Street expectations, pointing to demand tied to artificial intelligence (AI) computing and a tightening memory market. With U.S. markets closed this weekend, the move sets up a test of conviction when trading resumes. (Yahoo Finance)
Investors have treated chip-gear names as a cleaner read on the AI build-out than the chip designers themselves, because the orders show up earlier and can last longer. Morningstar analyst William Kerwin said AI infrastructure demand is “immense, and supply is scarce.” (Reuters)
The pause is longer than usual. The New York Stock Exchange is closed Monday for Washington’s Birthday, reopening Tuesday for the next regular session. (New York Stock Exchange)
Applied said fiscal first-quarter revenue was $7.01 billion, down 2% from a year earlier, and non-GAAP earnings per share were $2.38; non-GAAP results exclude certain items. For the second quarter, it projected revenue of $7.65 billion plus or minus $500 million and non-GAAP EPS of $2.64 plus or minus 20 cents. CEO Gary Dickerson said results were “fueled by the acceleration of industry investments in AI computing,” and CFO Brice Hill said the company has “nearly doubled our system manufacturing capability.” (GlobeNewswire)
Analysts had been expecting about $7.01 billion in revenue and adjusted profit of $2.28 a share for the quarter, LSEG data showed. Applied’s shares popped more than 12% in after-hours trade on Thursday, and the outlook also lifted peers Lam Research (LRCX.O) and KLA (KLAC.O) by nearly 3% each after the bell. Timm Schulze-Melander at Rothschild & Co. Redburn said “memory and logic-foundry capex growth are two sides of the same coin” — capex is capital spending — with memory the closer-term driver. (Reuters)
On the earnings call, Hill said he expects margins to “trend favorably as mix normalizes.” Executives also flagged high-bandwidth memory (HBM) as a strong demand pocket; HBM is a stacked, high-speed form of DRAM (dynamic random access memory) used in AI servers. (The Motley Fool)
But the rally comes against a regulatory backdrop. The U.S. Commerce Department said this week that Applied agreed to a $252 million settlement over illegally exporting chipmaking equipment to China’s SMIC, and the company said the Justice Department and SEC have closed related investigations without action. (Reuters)
What traders watch next is split between chip spending and the macro tape. The Federal Reserve is due to publish minutes from its Jan. 27-28 meeting at 2 p.m. ET on Wednesday, Feb. 18, a release that can move rates — and tech multiples — quickly. (Federalreserve)
