New York, Feb 20, 2026, 15:38 (EST) — Regular session
Lam Research Corp (LRCX) shares rose 2.4% to $243.19 in afternoon trade on Friday, after swinging between $236.68 and $245.70. BofA Securities analyst Vivek Arya reiterated a Buy rating and a $285 price forecast, calling Lam his top semiconductor equipment pick and pegging 2026 spending on wafer fabrication equipment (WFE) — the machines used to make chips — at $135 billion. (Finviz)
The call lands in a market still trying to sort out what the AI buildout means for the “pick-and-shovel” names. For chip toolmakers, orders can surge when customers expand factories, then go quiet when those projects hit space, power or timing limits.
Nvidia’s results next week are the next big check on that storyline. Analysts expect a 71% jump in quarterly earnings per share on about $65.9 billion in revenue, according to LSEG data cited by Reuters. Marta Norton, chief investment strategist at Empower, said it can be “hard for Nvidia to surprise,” while Alpine Macro’s Nick Giorgi said CEO Jensen Huang needs to “show his confidence in his own customers.” (Reuters)
Other chip-linked names were higher on Friday. Applied Materials rose 1.0% and KLA gained 0.7%, while Nvidia added about 0.8%; the iShares Semiconductor ETF was up 0.7%.
Earlier this week, Nvidia said it had signed a multi-year deal to sell Meta Platforms millions of its current and future AI chips, helping lift AI-related stocks after a bout of valuation jitters. “At a certain point, weakness in tech was bound to bring in the marginal buyer,” Ross Mayfield, an investment strategy analyst at Baird, told Reuters. (Reuters)
But the risk for Lam and its peers is that the market’s patience for big AI spending keeps thinning. Some investors have been shifting away from AI-heavy megacaps and toward “infrastructure” plays, even as others warn valuations are starting to stretch. “Valuations for anything with AI exposure are getting a bit rich,” said Michael Reynolds, vice president of investment strategy at Glenmede. (Reuters)
Lam makes etch and deposition tools that remove and add thin layers of material on silicon wafers — core steps in building advanced logic chips and memory. The company competes with Applied Materials and KLA and tends to trade on expectations for chipmakers’ capital spending.
Investors may get more color from management in early March. Lam is scheduled to present at Morgan Stanley’s TMT (technology, media and telecom) Conference on March 3 and Cantor’s Global Technology & Industrial Growth Conference on March 11, according to its investor events calendar. (Lam Research Investor Relations)
For now, traders are circling Nvidia’s report on Wednesday, Feb 25, for any change in tone on data-center demand and spending across the AI stack. A miss — or softer commentary — would likely filter quickly into semiconductor equipment shares.
