Applied Materials takes its Besi stake to 20% at an undisclosed price; Besi bought back at €187.12
Applied Materials is taking another 11% of Besi at an undisclosed price, while Besi's management spent the past year buying its own shares at an average €187.12. The stock trades near €159, and only one of the two votes has a number anyone can check.
Richard Tang · 2 min read
Applied Materials+4.84% — Applied Materials, up 4.84 percent today agreed on October 26 to buy another 11% of Besi+11.41% — Besi, up 11.41 percent today, taking the US equipment maker's stake from 9% to about 20% 37, at a price its own release does not disclose 4. The next morning, Besi's management closed a €60 million buyback at an average €187.12 a share and launched a new €100 million program 26. Two buyers, one share register, and only one of the two prices anyone can check.
Applied's vote is long term, capped and unpriced
The structure is clean: an accelerated share purchase agreement, delivery conditional on the Hart-Scott-Rodino antitrust waiting period, no board seat, and a stated limit of about 20% 34. So there is no takeover here, and no control premium for shareholders to price in. What Applied is buying is a long-term vote that Besi's machines are strategic to AI 7.
The reasoning is technical. Besi makes hybrid bonding equipment: machines that bond finished chips directly on top of one another, copper to copper, so signals between them travel shorter distances and use less power. That is how you stack AI accelerators with memory in the servers training the models. Applied's chip president Prabu Raja called hybrid bonding an increasingly critical enabler of energy-efficient AI compute 4, and the order book backs him: €342.60 million in the third quarter, up 96% from a year earlier 1.
Management's price is the only one you can check
Besi spent a year paying an average €187.12 for its own shares; the stock traded at €159.20 on the day of the announcement, far below this year's peak of €328.40 126. Management has already put a number on what it thinks the company is worth, and it bought below it. Applied's check is bigger, roughly 11% of a company worth about €12.5 billion 1, but until clearance and any disclosure, its price is a matter of faith.
Besi's own buyback averaged €187.12 while the stock traded at €159.20
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| Besi buyback average price | 187.12 |
| Besi share, 27 Oct 2026 | 159.2 |
| 52-week high | 328.4 |
The February print and the next buyback settle the argument
That sets up a clean test. The flat fourth-quarter revenue guidance says the AI packaging cycle is real but lumpy in the near term 1. Whoever wants Applied's conviction must wait for antitrust clearance, at a price not yet known. Whoever wants management's conviction must accept that management itself paid €187.12 26. The Q4 print in February and the average price of the new €100 million buyback will say which vote was right 26.
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