Melissa Weathers

Kemp credited advanced packaging, AI PCBs, and thermal, and said acceleration versus Investor Day gives confidence in durable long-term ICS growth.

Kemp said the local-for-local model and modular expansions since the 2022 peak let Qnity add capacity quickly and be prepared for 2027-2028 growth.

Kemp confirmed capacity investments track customer demand ramps with high-return POR-backed projects. Delaware first line operational, Taiwan fully operational early 2027.

Kemp described AI PCBs as underappreciated, explained finer lines and higher layer counts driving content, R&D pivot in 2023 now paying dividends.

CEO expects mature logic utilization to improve from mid-70s to mid-to-high 70s in 2026, similar recovery pace as 2025. Data center strength and broader industrial economy recovery are the drivers.

CEO detailed three ICS growth drivers: advanced packaging chemistry for signal integrity, HDI circuit board upgrades, and novel thermal solutions (pads, liquid gap fillers, phase change materials). All three grew 20%+ in 2025.

CEO noted it was too early to quantify 2026 specifics but emphasized 35% advanced node exposure driving above-market growth. Optimistic on mature logic recovery but cautious on NAND.

CEO explained gate-all-around drives more CMP steps and opportunities. HBM transitions create advanced packaging opportunities for metallization, substrates and thermal.

Brice noted 300mm utilizations are in a very healthy range. ICAPS equipment growth expected to return to mid-to-high single digits after digestion period.

Gary emphasized EPIC Center will accelerate multi-node R&D visibility and design wins, with 8 partners including TSMC, Samsung, Hynix, Micron and university partnerships.

Brice said inventory days at ~153 should stay fairly tight as rising revenue offsets the preemptive $500M build, signaling confidence in supporting forecasted demand.

Brice clarified DRAM is mostly greenfield investment while NAND is mostly conversions/upgrades where AMAT participates less. Gary added HBM's 3-4x wafer start multiplier as a powerful driver.

Brice declined to discuss specific customers but confirmed Applied updates medium-term forecasts twice per quarter. Acknowledged higher concentration in leading-edge demand creates less diversification than historically.

Brice noted HBM reaching 16% of DRAM wafer starts, growing at 40%. DRAM is at record or near-record levels, not at a cyclical low. Gary added Applied gained 10 points of DRAM share over a decade with 4F-squared and DDR5 positioning well.

Described full demand-signal propagation several tiers deep and acknowledged significant expediting work underway.

Answered with the undersupply carryover and updated the data center CapEx to WFE conversion ratio upward.

Tim highlighted SAM expansion from 3D scaling inflections driving higher etch/dep intensity plus flexible operations to manage cyclical risk, noting outperformance in prior downturns.

Tim confirmed this is a new use case beyond traditional enterprise SSD storage, related to AI inference and TD cache expansion, presenting a longer-term NAND growth opportunity beyond Investor Day projections.

Tim confirmed product engagement acceleration for Acara in DRAM conductor etch wins and Halo in 3D NAND word line applications for ESSD performance.

Split the answer into market acceleration plus share, and confirmed the R&D burden is modest because it leverages the existing front-end portfolio.

Gave a specific long-term CAGR range while flagging uncertainty over whether HPC creates a structural growth element.

Bren described increasing process control adoption in HVM driven by higher design-start mix complexity, with back-porting to prior nodes when new solutions find yield-impacting issues.

Declined to issue a new HBM TAM figure but reaffirmed HBM outgrowing conventional DRAM and significant 2027 pricing gains.