Overview
- Applied Materials increased its holding in Besi to roughly 20 percent, a move the company announced Tuesday to deepen their technology partnership.
- Applied called the purchase a long‑term minority investment and said it will not seek a board seat or expand the stake beyond about 20 percent at this time.
- Besi’s shares jumped about 11.4 percent on the Amsterdam exchange after the announcement, helping lift the AEX index for the day.
- The firms’ cooperation centers on hybrid bonding, a chip‑assembly technique that bonds stacked chips at fine pitch to cut power use and boost performance in AI systems.
- Analysts note that Chinese regulators, Besi’s protective foundation and the Dutch Wet Vifo investment‑screening law create legal and governance hurdles that make a full takeover difficult.