U.S. Semiconductor and Semiconductor Capital Equipment: Dialogue with 5 CEOs at Bernstein's 2026 Strategic Decision Conference

U.S. Semiconductors and Semicap Equipment: Conversationswith 5 CEOs at Bernstein's 2026 Strategic Decisions Conference Last week we hosted 5 senior semiconductor executives in and around our space (4covered, 1 not-covered) for fireside chats at Bernstein's 2026 (42nd annual) Strategic Stacy A. Rasgon, Ph.D.+1 213 559 5917stacy.rasgon@bernsteinsg.com Arpad von Nemes+1 917 344 8461arpad.vonnemes@bernsteinsg.com Specifically we held conversations with: Tim Archer, President and CEO of Lam Research(LRCX, rated OP, $340 PT)(webcast) Alrick Shaw+1 917 344 8454alrick.shaw@bernsteinsg.com Gary Dickerson, President and CEO of Applied Materials(AMAT, rated OP, $525 PT)(webcast) Cristiano Amon, President and CEO of Qualcomm(QCOM, rated MP, $140 PT)(webcast) Haviv Ilan, President and CEO of Texas Instruments(TXN, rated MP, $250 PT)(webcast) David Reeder, CEO of Entegris(ENTG, not covered) BERNSTEIN TICKER TABLE INVESTMENT IMPLICATIONS LRCX (OP, $340):The company is benefiting from key inflections (GAA, packaging, HBM, NAND upgrades) and CY26/27commentary seems supportive. AMAT (OP, $525):Exposure to key inflections is strong & valuation vs peers is attractive. QCOM (MP, $140):Memory headwinds appear likely to pressure smartphone builds and numbers appear high; we shall see ifdatacenter dream is enough to attract buyers. TXN (MP, $250.00):TXN shares feel fully valued in the current environment. DETAILS Lam Research (LRCX) Timothy M. Archer, President and Chief Executive Officer Overall, the discussion was focused on how the proliferation of AI has positively impacted the trajectory WFE spending goingforward with Lam describing the underlying drivers of demand and outlining their exposure to these markets which should seestrong growth. Lam continues to see strong WFE demand going forward and maintained their CY26 guide of $140B whilstacknowledging there is likely upward bias to the number. CY27 WFE is also seen growing next year with management notingthat clean room space has been the largest constraint in the space, and will be the case next year, though they didn’t providean unconstrained WFE number. Over the past few years, Lam has intentionally invested into developing products that haveallowed them to diversify their end-market exposure, allowing them to capitalize on the growth seen across Foundry/Logic and Highlights •The proliferation of AI has positively impacted the trajectory WFE spending going forward, with AI demand drivingstrength across every device type.With AI requiring more of everything, including leading edge compute, storage,memory, advanced packaging, and also requiring different materials in device architectures. There have been different •The company maintained their CY26 guide of $140B whilst acknowledging there is likely upward bias to thenumber. CY27 WFE is also seen growing next year with managementnoting that clean room space has been the •Over the past few years, Lam has intentionally invested into developing products that have allowed them todiversify their end-market exposure outside of Memory, allowing them to capitalize on the growth seen across Foundry/ •Long-term visibility is quite strong, as customers develop their technology roadmaps, with Lam currently engagedand qualifying products that won’t ramp until the early 2030s. •Gross margins are now in the “50s neighborhood”, with management proud of their progressand attributing thegrowth to strategic manufacturing footprint expansion and delivering more value with their tools, and while mix can be a China exposure is expected to be flattish to up slightly this year, as management can only compete on lagging edge Applied Materials (AMAT) Gary Dickerson, President, Chief Executive Officer & Executive Director Overall, the industry backdrop remains exceptionally strong with unprecedented demand visibility and AMAT views AI as oneof the biggest tech inflections in our lives that drives enormous demand. AMAT believes it is exceptionally well positioned tocapture industry growth due to their competencies in key areas like material science and their exposure to key technologyinflections in advanced logic, DRAM and advanced packaging which drive ~80% of incremental WFE spend in 2026. Highlights: •While not providing a WFE forecast for 2026, AMAT views an extremely attractive industry backdrop with unprecedenteddemand visibility into 2027 (with customers providing rolling 8 quarter forecasts) as AI drives enormous demand for leading •In advanced logic, AMAT provides some of the key innovations underpinning new architectures and technologies like BSPDNand GAA transistors as a leader in wiring and material science and as these ramp AMAT believes it can capture 50% of theincremental spend. Similarly, in DRAM and advanced packaging (which is expected to grow 50%+ this year), AMAT is in a •AMAT sees the profit pool as larger than ever which presents an opportunity to capture the value the company delivers.Pricing ha