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Applied Materials resolved a US export compliance investigation tied to prior shipments to China, agreeing to a $252.5 million settlement.
The company announced a major semiconductor R&D alliance with Samsung centered on its new EPIC Center in the US.
The partnership targets faster development and commercialization of next generation chipmaking technologies.
For investors watching NasdaqGS:AMAT, these updates come at a time when the stock price is $354.91, with a 1 year return of 111.9% and a 3 year return of 215.8%. The recent move, up 10.0% over the past week and 17.6% over the past month, indicates that the market is actively reassessing the company as regulatory uncertainty eases.
With the export investigation now resolved, management can focus more directly on operations and technology development alongside partners like Samsung. The EPIC Center collaboration and Applied Materials role in advancing chipmaking tools may influence how you think about the company’s exposure to US based semiconductor R&D in the period ahead.
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NasdaqGS:AMAT Earnings & Revenue Growth as at Feb 2026
NasdaqGS:AMAT Earnings & Revenue Growth as at Feb 2026
📰 Beyond the headline: 1 risk and 4 things going right for Applied Materials that every investor should see.
The resolution of the US export compliance probe and the Samsung alliance sit on opposite sides of the same coin for Applied Materials. On one hand, the US$252.5 million settlement removes an overhang tied to China export controls, with the Department of Justice and SEC closing their related investigations without action. That gives clearer regulatory footing as Applied leans into AI related chipmaking demand. On the other hand, the EPIC Center partnership with Samsung and the new 2nm and beyond tools highlight how tightly Applied is tying its future to leading edge logic, memory and advanced packaging alongside customers that also work with competitors such as ASML, Lam Research and Tokyo Electron. For you as an investor, the key question is whether the combination of compliance costs, heavier R&D and large capital commitments to EPIC is adequately supported by the expected pull from AI workloads and next generation devices.
How This Fits Into The Applied Materials Narrative
The Samsung EPIC Center collaboration and new 2nm class systems align with the narrative that AI and advanced architectures like Gate All Around transistors and high bandwidth memory are key growth drivers backed by close customer co development.
The size of the export settlement and the history of China related scrutiny underline narrative risks around geopolitics and customer concentration, showing how policy shifts can affect revenue visibility in key regions.
The EPIC Center model of parallel, faster R&D cycles and the depth of collaboration with Samsung add detail that is not fully captured in the earlier narrative focus on general wafer fab expansion and services growth.