What Is Driving Applied Materials Stock?
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Applied Materials (AMAT) stock rose 11.4% on Monday, November 9, 2026, while the S&P 500 gained 2.3%. There was no earnings report or filing from the company around the move, though its next report was due on November 12, 2026. Instead, Monday brought a rebound in technology stocks, which had sold off steeply around the world the week before. What ties a maker of chipmaking equipment to a day like that?
Applied Materials Sells Into AI Chip Spending
The link is AI. Applied makes the equipment chipmakers use to build their chips. On the company’s August 13, 2026 call, management said the rapid global build-out of AI infrastructure gives the company a strong base for years of revenue and profit growth. Revenue in fiscal Q3 2026 was $9.12 billion, up 24.8% from a year earlier.
Management also said on that call that its customers’ forecasts for capital spending were going up, and that spending by the cloud service providers was strong. Applied’s sales, in other words, follow what chipmakers spend on AI capacity, and that ties the stock to the wider technology trade.
Did Applied Materials Rise With Other Chip Stocks?
It did, and by more. The companies Trefis lists as Applied’s peers rose by less, among them Texas Instruments, up 6.6%, and Photronics, up 5.7%. Other chipmaking equipment stocks rallied too, with Lam Research up 9% and ASML up 6% in afternoon trading. The wider technology group also gained: the XLK technology sector fund rose 3.7%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.7%. Applied moved the same way as its peers and its sector, but it rose about three times as much as the sector fund.
Shares Of Applied Materials Remain Far Below June’s High
A rise this large is rare for Applied, which saw only two in the prior 365 days. Its last move of this size went the other way, a 13.6% fall on November 5, 2026.
The stock returned 59.6% over the past twelve months, against 13.7% for the S&P 500, but much of the run has since reversed. Monday’s close of $370.55 was about half the stock’s highest close of the past year of $723.00 on June 30, 2026. Over the past month alone, the stock lost 26.9%, compared with a 3.3% fall for the S&P 500. Its lowest close of the past year was $220.23 on November 20, 2025.
The stock trades at 9.5 times its sales over the past twelve months, compared with 3.1 times for the S&P 500. When Applied reports later in November 2026, the number to watch will be revenue for fiscal Q4 2026 against management’s guide of $10.25 billion, plus or minus $500 million.
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