Applied becomes major shareholder of Besi

Applied Materials has acquired a 9 percent stake in BE Semiconductor Industries (Besi). Applied doesn’t intend to seek board representation at Besi, nor does it have plans to purchase additional shares of common stock, although the move described by the US firm as “a strategic, long-term investment” has fueled speculation about a potential takeover down the road.

Applied and Besi have been collaborating since 2020, and recently extended their agreement to co-develop the industry’s first fully integrated equipment solution for die-based hybrid bonding. This technology is used to connect chips using direct copper-to-copper bonds, which increases density and shortens the lengths of interconnect wiring between chiplets, resulting in improved overall performance, power consumption and cost.

The firms have co-developed an integrated hybrid bonding system aimed at taking hybrid bonding to “very high-volume manufacturing” over the next several years. The equipment brings together Applied’s expertise in front-end wafer and chip processing and Besi’s expertise in bonding accuracy, die placement speed and interconnect and assembly solutions.