Applied Materials, Inc. is an American corporation that supplies equipment, services and software for the manufacture of semiconductor (integrated circuit) chips for electronics, flat panel displays for computers, smartphones, televisions, and solar products.

[3][4] Founded in 1967 by Michael A. McNeilly and others, Applied Materials went public in 1972 on the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ), a then-recently established stock exchange.

[14] In January 2008, Applied Materials purchased Baccini, an Italian company and designer of tools used in manufacturing solar cells.

[19] If it had been approved by government regulators, the proposed combined company, to be called Eteris,[20] would have been the world's largest supplier of semiconductor processing equipment, with a total market value of $29 billion.

[21] However, on April 27, 2015, Applied Materials announced that its merger with Tokyo Electron has been scrapped due to antitrust concerns and fears of dominating the semiconductor equipment industry.

[24] In 2019, Applied Materials announced its intention to buy semiconductor equipment manufacturer (and former Hitachi group member) Kokusai Electric Corporation from private equity firm KKR for $2.2 billion, but terminated the deal in March 2021 citing delays in getting approval from China's regulator.

[25][26][27] In November 2023, Applied Materials was reported to be under criminal investigation by the United States Department of Justice for routing equipment to Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation via South Korea in violation of US sanctions.

In cleanroom environments both TFT-LCD and integrated circuit production use photolithography, chemical and physical vapor deposition, and testing.

[37] In 2008, Applied acquired privately held, Italy-based Baccini SpA for $330M, company that worked in the metallization steps of solar cell manufacturing.

[30] Applied moved into its Bowers Avenue headquarters in Santa Clara, California, in 1974[40] and operates in Europe, Japan, Canada, the United States, Israel, China, Italy, India, Korea, Southeast Asia, Singapore and Taiwan.