I’m back with another “insane” End of Year sale…

This time, I’m sharing my new 5-stock Freedom Portfolio…

For just $1.

Why?

Because I believe this portfolio of 5 stocks could be your ticket into Trump’s new “Freedom Class” — a new class of regular Americans who have the most economic freedom in HISTORY…

Thanks to a revolutionary plan from the White House to unleash the biggest American wealth transfer in over 150 years.

But there’s just one catch:

I believe that the doors could slam shut on this opportunity as soon as January 10th.

And that means you only have a few more days to get in…

So if you love freedom…

And you have a dollar to spare…

Click here to take advantage of the biggest sale of the YEAR!

P.S. This is a limited-time sale. It won’t be available for much longer. Take advantage now.

---

More Reading from MarketBeat Media

AI Chips Can’t Exist Without These 2 Underrated Tech Giants

Written by Jeffrey Neal Johnson. Date Posted: 12/17/2025. 

Summary

• Applied Materials and Lam Research manufacture the specialized equipment needed to create next-generation logic and memory chips.
• These companies offer investors a stable entry point into the artificial intelligence sector through recurring revenue streams and consistent shareholder returns.
• The transition to complex new chip architectures creates a long-term growth opportunity for the leading suppliers of wafer fabrication equipment.

The stock market often fixates on a single question: Which chip designer will wear the crown in the artificial intelligence (AI) era? Will it be the current king, NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA), or a challenger like AMD (NASDAQ: AMD)? While that fight for market share makes for exciting headlines, it obscures a critical physical reality: no advanced chip can exist without the highly specialized factory tools required to build it.

While designers wage a fierce, often volatile battle for dominance, the fabs—the factories that manufacture chips—must buy equipment from a small set of suppliers regardless of whose name ends up on the final processor. That dynamic creates a classic “picks and shovels” investment opportunity. Just as tool suppliers profited during the Gold Rush, the companies supplying infrastructure for sovereign AI clouds are positioned for steady, long-term growth.

Best $19 you’ll spend this year. (Ad)

A former hedge fund manager known for cutting through market noise is briefly opening access to his flagship trading strategy. In a short demo, he explains how his “One Ticker” approach works — and how readers can access the full service for a year at a steep discount.Watch the brief demo here

Industry data supports this view. Estimates suggest that for every $100 billion invested in AI data center infrastructure, roughly $8 billion flows directly into the Wafer Fab Equipment (WFE) market. With the WFE market expected to exceed $105 billion in calendar year 2025 and forecast to grow further into 2026, the sector offers a predictable revenue stream. Two giants stand out as indispensable to this economy: Applied Materials (NASDAQ: AMAT) and Lam Research (NASDAQ: LRCX).

The Technology Moat: Why These Two Are Indispensable

High-end chip manufacturing is not a commodity business; it’s an oligopoly where specific tools are required for specific tasks. Fabs cannot simply swap one machine for another. To see the investment case, investors must understand the physical bottlenecks in modern computing that these companies solve.

Applied Materials: The Logic Leader

Applied Materials leads in materials engineering—a critical step for logic chips (processors) and advanced packaging. As chips become more powerful, they generate greater heat and require new transistor architectures to manage power and performance.

The industry is shifting to Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistors to provide better power control at the 2-nanometer node and beyond. Applied Materials supplies several specialized tools essential for building these structures:

• Applied Centura Xtera Epi: Creates void-free epitaxial structures that are essential for transistor speed. Without this capability, transistors cannot reach required performance levels.
• Kinex Hybrid Bonding: As chipmakers stack chiplets to build more powerful processors, queue times can cause degradation. Kinex integrates cleaning, alignment, and bonding in a single vacuum-controlled environment, solving that problem and enabling the high-performance stacking critical for AI.

Lam Research: The Memory Specialist

While Applied Materials focuses on the computer’s “brain,” Lam Research dominates memory-focused process tools.

AI models require massive amounts of fast memory—High Bandwidth Memory (HBM)—alongside high-density storage in the form of 3D NAND. To increase capacity, manufacturers stack silicon layers vertically, sometimes reaching more than 400 layers.

• Lam Cryo 3.0: An etch technology that uses extreme cold to drill deep, uniform channels through 400+ layers of memory. Older etch methods can distort these channels and ruin the chip.
• Vantex: Dielectric etch chambers designed to work with Cryo 3.0 to build these high-aspect-ratio structures.

Weathering the Storm: Growth Despite Geopolitics

The business model for equipment manufacturers provides stability that pure-play chip designers often lack. Chip sales can swing with consumer demand and competitive pressures, but fabs need constant maintenance, calibration, and upgrades.

That creates recurring revenue. In fiscal 2025, Applied Materials’ service division, Applied Global Services (AGS), generated $6.39 billion in revenue, up 3% year-over-year. Lam Research’s Customer Support Business Group (CSBG) likewise produces steady revenue from spares and upgrades. This service income provides a floor for earnings during market downturns.

This resilience was tested by geopolitical headwinds. In late 2025, the U.S. implemented the “50% affiliate” rule, expanding export restrictions to a broader set of Chinese entities: if a restricted parent owns 50% or more of a subsidiary, the subsidiary becomes restricted too.

The rule contributed to Applied Materials’ revenue share from China falling from 37% in fiscal 2024 to 30% in fiscal 2025. Lam Research faced a similar hit, with an immediate $200 million revenue impact projected for the December 2025 quarter. Yet both companies still reported record or near-record revenues, signaling that demand from the U.S., Taiwan, and Korea—driven by the AI boom—was sufficient to offset significant geopolitical losses.

A Value Entry Point Into the AI Supercycle

Beyond their technological moats, Applied Materials and Lam Research offer attractive financial fundamentals. They typically trade at lower price-to-earnings (P/E) multiples than some high-flying chip designers, providing a value entry point into the AI sector without paying the steep premiums attached to the most popular AI names.

Both companies also return substantial cash to shareholders, which helps stabilize their stock prices.

• Applied Materials: In fiscal 2025, the company returned roughly $6.3 billion to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks.
• Lam Research: Repurchased $990 million of its own stock in the September 2025 quarter alone.

Those capital returns reflect managements’ confidence in cash flow and give investors a tangible payoff while waiting for the next growth leg.

Infrastructure Over Hype: Why the Equipment Makers Win

While chip designers compete for the spotlight, Applied Materials and Lam Research own the stage beneath them. They provide the essential infrastructure—the toll roads—of the semiconductor industry. Without their specific, patented machinery, the transition to 2nm logic chips and high-capacity memory could not occur.

With the Wafer Fab Equipment market projected to top $105 billion in 2025 and to continue growing into 2026, these companies offer a foundational way to invest in the semiconductor supercycle. For investors seeking exposure to AI growth with lower volatility and proven financial stability, the equipment oligopoly presents a compelling opportunity.

Thank you for subscribing to DividendStocks.com’s daily newsletter for dividend and income investors that covers ex-dividend stocks, new dividend declarations, dividend stock ideas, and the latest market news.

This email is a sponsored message provided by StocksToTrade, a third-party advertiser of DividendStocks.com and MarketBeat. 


Disclaimer: Results are not typical and will vary from person to person. Making money trading stocks takes time, timing, proper execution, dedication, and hard work. There are inherent risks involved with investing in the stock market, including the loss of your investment. Past performance in the market is not indicative of future results. Any investment is at your own risk. Some students featured have since joined our team as educators or mentors after achieving success with our programs.


If you have questions about your newsletter, don’t hesitate to contact MarketBeat’s South Dakota based support team at contact@marketbeat.com.

If you no longer wish to receive email from DividendStocks.com, you can unsubscribe.

© 2006-2025 MarketBeat Media, LLC. All rights reserved.
345 North Reid Place, Sixth Floor, Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57103-7078. United States..

From Our Partners: 5 Stocks That Could Double in 2026 (Click to Opt-In)