Applied Materials Guided to $10.25bn. Now Every Other Toolmaker Has a Number to Be Measured Against.

by Karl Lindström · August 14, 2026

Semiconductors & Hardware Reporter, Frontier Tech Wire

Applied Materials told investors after Thursday's close that it expects revenue of about $10.25 billion in its fiscal fourth quarter, plus or minus $500 million. That is roughly 12% above the quarter it had just reported, and well above the roughly $9.54 billion Stocktwits cited as consensus going into the print. For the rest of the chip-equipment complex, a guide of that size from the industry's largest deposition and etch supplier is not a company event. It is a sector datapoint.

The quarter itself was already a record. Applied reported fiscal third-quarter revenue of $9.115 billion, up 25% year on year and 15% sequentially, with GAAP diluted earnings per share of $3.17 and non-GAAP diluted EPS of $3.50, according to the company's release. Gross margin came in at 50.3% on a GAAP basis and 50.4% on a non-GAAP basis; operating margin was 33.7% GAAP and 34.0% non-GAAP. Chief executive Gary Dickerson said in the release: "Applied Materials delivered another record-breaking quarter, including the highest sequential revenue growth in the company's history."

Semiconductor Systems contributed $7.040 billion, Applied Global Services $1.781 billion, and the display and other line $294 million. For the fourth quarter the company guided Semiconductor Systems to roughly $7.9 billion and Applied Global Services to about $1.84 billion, with non-GAAP diluted EPS of about $4.02 plus or minus $0.20 and non-GAAP gross margin flat at around 50.4%, per the results presentation summarised by Investing.com.

The composition of the growth is what other toolmakers will be read against. Within Semiconductor Systems, foundry, logic and other accounted for 67% of revenue, DRAM 26% and flash memory 7%. On the earnings call, management said DRAM revenue, which includes high-bandwidth-memory packaging, grew 52% year on year to record levels, and said it expects packaging revenues to grow more than 70% in calendar 2026. Management also framed leading-edge foundry and logic, DRAM and advanced packaging as together making up roughly 80% of wafer fab equipment growth in both 2026 and 2027.

Two larger peers have already put numbers on the board against that backdrop. Lam Research (Nasdaq: LRCX) reported June-quarter revenue of $6.72 billion, with GAAP gross margin of 51.7% and non-GAAP gross margin of 52.0%, GAAP operating margin of 37.4% against 38.4% non-GAAP, and GAAP diluted EPS of $1.81 versus $1.82 non-GAAP. It guided the September quarter to $8.10 billion plus or minus $400 million, with non-GAAP gross margin of 52.0% and net income of $2.15 per diluted share, each plus or minus their stated ranges. Chief executive Tim Archer said in the release: "Lam delivered record revenue, operating margin and earnings per share in the June quarter as AI-driven demand continues to reshape the semiconductor industry."

KLA (Nasdaq: KLAC) reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $3.658 billion and full-year revenue of $13.579 billion, with GAAP diluted EPS of $1.04 and non-GAAP diluted EPS of $1.05. Those per-share figures look small against the company's history for a mechanical reason: KLA carried out a 10-for-1 stock split on 11 June 2026, with all per-share information retroactively adjusted. KLA guided its September quarter to $4.0 billion plus or minus $200 million, with GAAP diluted EPS of $1.14 and non-GAAP diluted EPS of $1.16, each plus or minus $0.10. President and chief executive Rick Wallace said: "KLA's June quarter results reinforce that the trends driving our growth are strengthening, and we see momentum across our business accelerating in the second half of calendar 2026 and continuing through 2027."

Further down the market-cap scale, the same mix shows up in cleaner form. Onto Innovation, which trades on the New York Stock Exchange under ONTO rather than on Nasdaq, reported second-quarter revenue of $343.1 million, with GAAP gross margin of 53.4% against non-GAAP gross margin of 57.0%, and GAAP diluted EPS of $1.21 against non-GAAP diluted EPS of $1.93. Backlog exceeded $1 billion for the first time in the company's history. Onto guided the third quarter to revenue of $380 million to $400 million, GAAP diluted EPS of $1.54 to $1.70 and non-GAAP diluted EPS of $2.18 to $2.38. Chief executive Michael Plisinski said in the release: "Onto Innovation is positioned well across several key technology inflections driving next generation AI and high performance compute devices."

Camtek, listed on both Nasdaq and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under CAMT, reported second-quarter revenue of $133.2 million, GAAP gross margin of 50.1% against 51.4% non-GAAP, GAAP operating income of $27.2 million or a 20.4% margin against non-GAAP operating income of $36.0 million or 27.0%, and GAAP diluted EPS of $0.46 against $0.78 non-GAAP. It guided the third quarter to $158 million to $160 million and said orders received year to date exceeded $600 million, with deliveries scheduled into 2027. Camtek expects advanced packaging revenue to grow roughly 70% between the first and fourth quarters of 2026. That is a within-year ramp rather than a year-on-year rate, so it is not directly comparable with Applied's own packaging number, but both point the same way on the same end market.

The most durable signal from Thursday night was not the guide but the capacity commitment behind it. Applied said it is doubling quarterly system manufacturing capacity from current levels by 2028, with further expansion planned to serve 2030 demand, and that it added more than 1,500 employees in manufacturing and customer support during the third quarter alone. Guidance can be trimmed a quarter later; factory space and headcount are harder to reverse.

China remains the largest single geography in Applied's mix, at $2.506 billion of third-quarter revenue, or 28% of the total, ahead of Taiwan at $2.025 billion, or 22%, and Korea at $1.521 billion, or 17%. On the call, management said it now expects China revenue to increase this calendar year, led by investment in 28-nanometre foundry and logic, with growth continuing into 2027. Lam separately reported China at 26% of its June-quarter revenue.

None of which stopped the stock going down. Applied closed the regular session at $534.54, down 2.48%, and traded at $508.15 after hours, a further 4.94% lower, according to the results coverage from Investing.com. Stocktwits noted that the shares had already run close to 100% into the print, which lifts the bar a beat has to clear. KLA saw a comparable pattern in late July, with shares falling 10.1% immediately after results that came in above expectations, per a StockStory analysis.

The wider frontier-tech complex is not moving as one. Cerebras Systems (Nasdaq: CBRS) fell 11.85% on Thursday to close at $231.01, down from a $262.06 close the day before, after reporting second-quarter GAAP revenue of $180.11 million, up 74% year on year but short of forecasts. On the core, non-GAAP basis the company guides to, revenue was about $210 million, and it raised full-year core revenue guidance to $880 million to $890 million from $855 million to $865 million -- so the miss and the raise are measured on different bases. US markets have not opened on Friday. Whether the read-through from Applied's guide reaches the smaller metrology, inspection and packaging names, or stops at the large-cap toolmakers, will be settled at the bell.