Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Applied Materials No-Politics Thread (AMAT) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Big Bucks who wrote (9031)	2/23/2004 9:04:29 AM
From: Proud_Infidel	Respond to of 25522

Intel sets 2004 capital spending at $3.6 bln-$4 bln Monday February 23, 8:51 am ET NEW YORK, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The world's largest microprocessor company Intel Corp. (NasdaqNM:INTC - News) expects to spend $3.6 billion to $4 billion on chip-making equipment and other investments in 2004, according to regulatory documents it filed on Monday. The Santa Clara, California-based company said that the mid-point of that spending range is $3.8 billion, slightly higher than its $3.7 billion in capital spending in 2003. It said it expects to spend more than half the total on chipmaking equipment and one-quarter on land and constuction. The balance will go towards other equipment and machinery. In January when it announced earnings, Intel, which is the largest buyer of machinery used to produce chips, said that it expected its 2004 capital spending to be about on par with 2003. The company expects 2004 gross profit margin --or net sales less the cost of goods sold -- to be 62 percent, plus or minus a few points, above 2003's gross margin of 57 percent. That is the same projection the company gave in December when it raised the figure from an earlier target of 60 percent. Analysts have said the higher profit ratio is an indication that its investments in advanced microchip-making tools were paying off.

To: Big Bucks who wrote (9031)	2/25/2004 5:55:21 PM
From: Proud_Infidel	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 25522

Heard on the Beat: Applied quietly ships new implanter Silicon Strategies 02/25/2004, 5:20 PM ET Applied Materials Inc. is reportedly shipping its next-generation, yet-to-be-announced single-wafer ion implanter, dubbed the QuantumX. One of the first implanters is going to Korea's Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., according to a report from investment banking firm Mitchell, Detwiler & Co. in Boston. Texas Instruments Inc. has also ordered Applied's new implanter, which will be installed in its new 300-mm fab in Texas, dubbed DMOS7, according to the report. With Applied's new tool, the ion-implanter market is heating up. "Looking at the ion implant sector of semiconductor tools, Applied Materials (AMAT), Varian (VSEA), and Axcelis (ACLS) are the top North American vendors," wrote analyst Vincent Valentine in the report. "With the advent of shallow junction transistors as the building block for leading edge ICs, single wafer processing has displaced batch processing," he said in the report. "VSEA is clearly the leader with significant top feeding activity, followed by AMAT with its new Quantum X implanter, and then there is ACLS. Unfortunately for ACLS, VSEA is the rock with its VIISta platform and AMAT is the hard place, as the Quantum X contains the IP won from the lawsuit levied by ACLS," according to the report. Last year, Applied claimed victory in its legal battle against Axcelis, saying that a jury ruled that Applied's ion implantation system does not infringe upon a patent owned by Axcelis. In January 2001, Axcelis had filed suit against Applied, asserting that its Swift line of implanters infringed Axcelis' patent, namely U.S. Patent No. 4,667,111. By its verdict, the jury rejected Axcelis' contention (see July 2, 2003 story).