Applied Materials is one of those companies most people have never heard of, yet modern civilization would become a very expensive camping trip without it. Founded in 1967 in Silicon Valley, built to help make semiconductors, transformed itself into a global chip-equipment powerhouse, became a critical supplier during every major computing revolution from PCs to smartphones to AI, and today sits at the center of the most important arms race in technology. It matters because every company chasing artificial intelligence eventually runs into the same problem: somebody has to build the chips. Applied Materials sells the machinery that makes that possible.

Applied Materials does not make the chips. It sells the picks and shovels to the people digging for the proverbial gold. If NVIDIA is selling the dream, Applied Materials is selling the factory equipment needed to manufacture the dream. Its largest business is Semiconductor Systems, which provides the highly specialized tools used to build advanced semiconductors. The second major business is Applied Global Services, which keeps those machines running, upgraded, and profitable long after they are installed. There is also a smaller Display segment serving screens and advanced displays.

Its customers read like a who’s who of global technology: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Samsung Electronics, Intel, memory producers, foundries, and increasingly any company trying to build AI infrastructure. The company is headquartered in Santa Clara and led by Gary Dickerson. It employs roughly 35,000 people worldwide. Its biggest competitors are ASML, Lam Research, and KLA Corporation. In this industry, there are only a handful of players capable of building these machines, which gives Applied Materials a moat wider than most governments’ fiscal deficits.

Financially, this company resembles a toll booth on a busy interstate. Revenue recently reached a record $7.91 billion in the latest quarter, up 11% year over year, while earnings climbed 33% and margins approached 50%. Those are not numbers typically associated with struggling businesses. They are numbers associated with companies that have customers standing in line with checkbooks.