Applied Materials and Lam Research Circle $15 Billion Bid for Hybrid Bonding Leader BESI

By NineScrolls Team · 2026-03-23 · 4 min read · Industry

The Bidding War

The two largest U.S. semiconductor equipment makers are fighting over the same target. Applied Materials and Lam Research are both exploring multi-billion-euro offers for BE Semiconductor Industries (BESI), the Dutch company that holds a near-monopoly on hybrid bonding equipment for advanced chip packaging. BESI shares surged 10.2 percent on March 13 when Reuters broke the story, hitting an all-time intraday high of €199.85.

BESI has retained Morgan Stanley to evaluate the approaches. Applied Materials already owns a 9 percent stake in BESI, acquired in April 2024, making it the company's largest shareholder. Lam Research has held separate talks with BESI and remains actively interested, according to sources familiar with the discussions. The deal could value BESI at approximately $15 billion.

Why Hybrid Bonding Matters

Hybrid bonding replaces traditional solder bumps with direct copper-to-copper connections between stacked chips, achieving interconnect pitches below 10 micrometers. The result is an order-of-magnitude improvement in interconnection density, bandwidth, and energy efficiency compared to conventional packaging.

The technology is critical for two of the fastest-growing segments in semiconductor manufacturing: high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI accelerators and chiplet-based processor architectures. As the memory industry moves toward HBM4 in 2026 and 2027, BESI's tools are the only ones capable of the sub-micron alignment accuracy required to stack 16 or 24 layers of memory dies. Every major Nvidia Blackwell and Vera Rubin chip relies on HBM stacks that will increasingly require hybrid bonding.

The Plasma and Thin Film Connection

Hybrid bonding is not a standalone process. It requires a multi-step flow that begins with precision plasma processing and thin film deposition long before any dies are bonded together.

The integrated hybrid bonding line that Applied Materials and BESI built together covers every step of the die-to-wafer flow: thin film deposition of barrier and bonding layers, chemical mechanical planarization to achieve sub-nanometer surface flatness, plasma activation to prepare copper and dielectric surfaces for bonding, precision cleaning, metrology, and finally optical alignment and bonding.

Plasma activation is the enabling step. Without it, the copper-to-copper bond does not form. The plasma treatment removes surface oxides and creates the reactive surface chemistry needed for room-temperature bonding. This step requires precisely controlled low-energy plasma sources that modify the surface without damaging the underlying thin film stack.

For equipment suppliers in the plasma processing and thin film deposition space, the growth of hybrid bonding represents a new and expanding addressable market that did not exist five years ago.

What Is at Stake

The acquirer would gain control of the dominant hybrid bonding platform at the exact moment the technology is transitioning from early adoption to high-volume manufacturing. BESI's hybrid bonding revenue is expected to scale rapidly as TSMC, Samsung, and Intel ramp advanced packaging capacity for AI chips.

For Applied Materials, acquiring BESI would vertically integrate its front-end deposition and etch capabilities with back-end advanced packaging, creating an end-to-end equipment offering that no competitor can match. Applied Materials already supplies the surface preparation and plasma activation tools used upstream of BESI's bonders.

For Lam Research, the acquisition would represent a major push into advanced packaging, a segment where Lam currently has less presence than Applied Materials. Lam's strength in etch and deposition for memory manufacturing makes BESI a natural complement, particularly as HBM stacking drives hybrid bonding adoption.

Regulatory Hurdles

Any deal must clear the Dutch Vifo Act (Investments, Mergers, and Acquisitions Security Screening Act), which subjects acquisitions of companies with strategic technology to a national security review. The Netherlands is increasingly protective of its semiconductor ecosystem, which includes ASML, NXP, and BESI.

Negotiations between the parties began in mid-2025 but paused earlier this year after tensions flared between the U.S. and European Union over geopolitical disputes. The regulatory environment adds uncertainty to the timeline, though neither side has abandoned discussions.

What Happens Next

No formal offer has been announced. BESI, Applied Materials, and Lam Research have all declined to comment on the reports. Morgan Stanley continues to advise BESI on its options.

The outcome will reshape the semiconductor equipment landscape. Whichever company acquires BESI will own the critical link between front-end wafer fabrication and back-end advanced packaging—a link that runs directly through plasma activation and thin film deposition. The loser will need to develop or acquire competing hybrid bonding capabilities from scratch, a multi-year effort with no guarantee of matching BESI's installed base and technology lead.

With HBM4 production ramping in 2026 and chiplet architectures proliferating across every major foundry, the strategic window for this acquisition is narrow. Expect developments in the coming weeks.