The Packaging-Tool Makers Have Already Filed Their Numbers. Applied Materials Reports Tonight.

by Karl Lindström · August 13, 2026

Semiconductors & Hardware Reporter, Frontier Tech Wire

Investors looking for a read on wafer fab equipment demand ahead of Applied Materials' fiscal third-quarter report do not have to guess entirely. Two smaller process-control and inspection companies with heavy exposure to advanced packaging have already reported June-quarter results and issued September-quarter guidance in the past week, and both raised the bar. What those numbers do and do not say about Applied Materials is a narrower question than the sector-wide framing usually allows.

Camtek Ltd., which trades on Nasdaq and the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange under the ticker CAMT, reported second-quarter results on August 10. Revenue was $133.2 million, which the company described as a record. GAAP gross margin was 50.1 percent and GAAP net income was $23.3 million, or $0.46 per diluted share. On a non-GAAP basis the company reported gross margin of 51.4 percent, operating income of $36.0 million and net income of $39.4 million, or $0.78 per diluted share. The gap between the two EPS figures is large enough that quoting only the non-GAAP number would misstate the quarter by roughly 70 percent.

The forward number was the more striking one. Camtek guided third-quarter revenue to a range of $158 million to $160 million, which the company said represents a 20 percent sequential increase over the second quarter. It also disclosed cash, equivalents, deposits and marketable securities of $815.8 million. Chief executive Rafi Amit said in the release: "I am very pleased with the second quarter results which set a record revenue for us. Since the beginning of 2026, we have experienced a significant acceleration in order intake, bringing total orders received year-to-date to more than $600 million, with deliveries scheduled throughout the remainder of 2026 and into 2027."

Onto Innovation Inc., listed on the New York Stock Exchange under ONTO, reported its second quarter on August 6. Revenue was $343.1 million. GAAP gross margin was 53.4 percent, GAAP net income was $60.1 million and GAAP diluted earnings were $1.21 per share. Non-GAAP net income was $96.0 million, or $1.93 per diluted share, on a 57.0 percent non-GAAP gross margin. The company said backlog exceeded $1 billion for the first time in its history and that Specialty Devices and Advanced Packaging revenue reached an all-time high, supported by demand across advanced packaging including 2.5D logic and high-bandwidth memory as well as silicon photonics. Third-quarter guidance was $380 million to $400 million of revenue, with a non-GAAP operating margin of 31.5 to 32.5 percent and non-GAAP diluted EPS of $2.18 to $2.38.

Onto also lifted its view of the back half of the year, on the earnings call rather than in the release itself. Chief executive Mike Plisinski told analysts: "With this favorable backdrop, we're raising our second half revenue growth outlook to 25% or more over the first half, up from our previous expectation of 15%." He put record backlog on the call at more than $1.1 billion. In the written release Plisinski framed the quarter around the company's positioning across technology inflections tied to next-generation artificial intelligence and high-performance devices. The revision, rather than the quarter itself, is the part that matters for anyone extrapolating: it is an in-year change of view from a company that sells into the same customers whose capital budgets Applied Materials depends on.

Applied Materials, Nasdaq-listed as AMAT, confirmed in a July release that it will report fiscal third-quarter results on Thursday, August 13, with the conference call scheduled for 4:30 p.m. ET. That is after Thursday's close; nothing in tonight's print is in the market yet. The company's own guidance, issued with its May 14 fiscal second-quarter release, called for revenue of $8.95 billion plus or minus $500 million and non-GAAP diluted EPS of $3.36 plus or minus $0.20. Benzinga reported consensus at roughly $9 billion of revenue and $3.39 per share, against year-ago figures of $7.3 billion and $2.48.

The mix caveat is the one most easily lost. In fiscal Q2, Applied Materials reported Semiconductor Systems revenue of $5,965 million out of $7,910 million total, and disclosed that within that segment foundry, logic and other accounted for 67 percent, DRAM 29 percent and flash memory 4 percent. Camtek and Onto sell disproportionately into inspection and metrology for advanced packaging and high-bandwidth memory assembly. Strength in packaging tools is a genuine demand signal, but it is not a proxy for leading-edge foundry and logic deposition and etch, which is where the bulk of Applied's systems revenue sits. Chief executive Gary Dickerson said in the May release: "Applied Materials delivered record quarterly performance, and we now expect our semiconductor equipment business to grow more than 30 percent in calendar 2026."

Positioning going into the print has been constructive rather than defensive. Applied Materials closed Wednesday's regular session at $548.15, up 4.3 percent, according to Benzinga's pre-earnings summary; the Nasdaq Composite finished the same day at 26,588, up 0.54 percent. Those are Wednesday's closing levels: as this is published, before Thursday's opening bell, no part of tonight's report is in the market. None of that constitutes information about the quarter; it describes what the market already believed going in.

The honest summary is that the packaging-exposed names have supplied hard, filed evidence of accelerating order intake into 2027 deliveries, and that this evidence is real but partial. Applied Materials' fiscal Q3 will be judged against its own guided range and, more consequentially, against whatever it says about the October quarter and the calendar-2026 equipment growth figure Dickerson put on the record in May. Until 4:30 p.m. ET, that remains an open question.