If you’ve ever wondered who makes the machines that build the chips powering artificial intelligence (AI), Applied Materials (AMAT) is a good place to start your education. It doesn’t make chips. But it manufactures the equipment that enables chipmaking, and right now, the world can’t get enough of both.
Citi analyst Atif Malik reset AMAT’s price target. And buried inside his analysis was something bigger: a wild card involving Tesla (TSLA) and SpaceX that Malik says could add tens of billions of dollars in equipment demand that isn’t even in his base case yet.
Applied Materials CEO Gary Dickerson had already signaled the company’s momentum. “The need for higher performance and more energy-efficient chips is driving high…







