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Both companies sell semiconductor factory equipment to chipmakers, and both rely on customers’ spending on new fabs and upgrades. Lam focuses on deposition, etch, and clean tools, which overlap with parts of Applied Materials’ wafer fabrication equipment business, so they often compete for the same chipmaking budgets.
As of Jun 23, 2026
For informational purposes only.
Today was a “who turned off the lights?” kind of day for chip stocks, and Applied Materials got caught right in the middle of it.
If you own or are eyeing AMAT, today’s message is simple: this drop says more about nervousness around all AI and chip names than about any new problem at Applied Materials itself. The stock is still in a strong longer-term uptrend, but it’s now clearly in the “fasten your seatbelt” zone — big moves both up and down are on the menu.
Applied Materials closed around $586, down about 8–9% on the day. That’s a big one-day move, especially after a huge run: the stock is still up roughly a third over the past month and well over half over the past few months.
Trading volume was heavier than normal, which tells you a lot of people were hitting the sell button at the same time. The stock’s recent path has been steeply upward, but it’s also become very jumpy — it tends to swing more than twice as much as the overall market. Today was one of those swing days, just in the wrong direction.
The biggest reason isn’t specific to AMAT at all: semiconductor stocks as a group sold off hard today. Headlines literally called it a “chip bloodbath,” with the Nasdaq dragged down as money moved out of chip and AI names and into more defensive areas.
