New York, Feb 22, 2026, 13:37 (ET) — The session has ended.
Lam Research Corp (LRCX.O) ended Friday’s session at $244.92, rising 3.17% for the day. Shares moved within a range of $236.96 to $245.76, wrapping up just under the 52-week peak of $251.87. The Nasdaq edged up around 0.9%. (Investing)
U.S. markets are closed for the weekend, so Lam’s late-week rebound gives investors a straightforward read heading into Monday—there’s no new company news, yet the sector’s still alive with competing forces.
Why does it matter? Chip-tool names like Lam can swing hard on macro headlines or “read-through” earnings. Positioned in the wafer-fab supply chain, Lam often gets traded as a bellwether for capex on chip plants and equipment upgrades.
For Lam, along with rivals like Applied Materials and KLA, it’s mainly a question of when—and how much—chipmakers will spend. Are they going to keep ordering etch and deposition tools to support AI servers, advanced memory, and leading-edge logic? That sort of outlay gets summed up as wafer fabrication equipment, or WFE.
Nvidia, widely watched for signals on AI hardware appetite, will release its latest quarterly numbers this Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 5 p.m. ET, according to the company. The chipmaker’s report tends to influence sentiment across the AI supply chain, even in quieter quarters for hardware vendors. (NVIDIA Newsroom)
Back in late January, Lam guided to third-quarter revenue of $5.7 billion, give or take $300 million, and put adjusted earnings at $1.35 a share, up or down 10 cents, topping analyst estimates, according to Reuters. CEO Tim Archer pointed to Lam’s portfolio driving the move toward “smaller, more complex” devices and packages. (Reuters)
During the earnings call, Archer told analysts, “All indications are that we are still in the early stages of the AI build-out.” Lam’s initial outlook for 2026 WFE landed at roughly $135 billion. Management added that WFE should be more heavily concentrated in the second half of the year. (Investing)
China’s role as a swing factor for the stock hasn’t gone away, especially if trade rules shift or shipment routes change once more. In the December quarter, China accounted for 35% of Lam’s revenue—down from 43% just a quarter earlier, CFO Doug Bettinger told analysts on the call. (The Motley Fool)
The downside, absent any policy shakeups, is pretty straightforward. When customers hold off on tool installations or push back ramping up capacity, revenue timing shifts from one quarter to another—and the stock usually moves quickly.
Lam’s board signed off on a 26-cent quarterly dividend, marking March 4 as the record date and April 8 for distribution, the company said earlier this month. For some, those payouts provide stability—though the floor can give way. (Lam Research Investor Relations)
Lam has Bettinger lined up for Morgan Stanley’s TMT Conference on March 3, then the Cantor Global Technology & Industrial Growth Conference a week later on March 11. Investors are expected to tune in closely on March 3, watching for any shift in his outlook on 2026 tool demand. (Lam Research Investor Relations)
