India, April 21 -- Applied Materials Inc. has purchased 9% of the outstanding shares of the common stock of BE Semiconductor Industries N.V. (Besi), a leading manufacturer of assembly equipment for the semiconductor industry.

Applied and Besi have been successfully collaborating since 2020, and recently extended their agreement, to co-develop the industry's first fully integrated equipment solution for die-based hybrid bonding. Hybrid bonding is becoming a critical technology for advanced packaging of semiconductors as designers and manufacturers race to develop more energy-efficient chips.

Hybrid bonding connects chips using direct copper-to-copper bonds, which increases density and shortens the lengths of interconnect wiring between c...