Applied Materials, Inc. (AMAT) vs Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD)

Applied Materials Inc. is the world’s largest manufacturer of semiconductor wafer fabrication equipment, with a broad portfolio covering nearly every segment of the WFE ecosystem. The company holds a leading market share in deposition technologies, which involve adding new material layers to semiconductor wafers. Applied Materials has greater exposure to general-purpose logic chips produced by integrated device manufacturers and foundries. Its customer base includes some of the world’s largest chipmakers, such as TSMC, Intel, and Samsung.

Advanced Micro Devices develops a broad range of digital semiconductors for end markets including PCs, gaming consoles, data centers with AI workloads, industrial systems, and automotive applications. The company has traditionally been strongest in central processing units and graphics processing units for PCs and data centers, while increasingly establishing itself as a notable competitor in AI GPUs and related hardware. AMD also provides the chips used in leading game consoles such as Sony PlayStation and Microsoft Xbox.