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.

Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jacob Snyder who wrote (10379)	11/4/1997 9:49:00 PM
From: Big Bucks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 70976

JS, Excellent cross-analysis between these two giants in their fields. Would it be fair to say that their fortunes go hand-in-hand? I think so. The semi manufacturers tend to lag the chip industry because their equipment is custom ordered and goes into the backlog of production. It takes time to order and receive the thousands of specialty parts required to build each system and then "slot" it into the production schedule. The chip manufacturers tend to go into a mass-production mode into the world wide market to meet the massive demand for their chips. If the Chip market is booming and profits/margins are high there is a likelihood that they will be planning on building new fabs to ramp their capacity. They typically place orders for new equipment when the engine is firing on all cylinders or a new generation of chip design requires a whole new set of equipment to meet the future production requirements, thus the relationship of "peaks" due to book-to-bill and backorders. BB