Competitive Comparison

ASML vs. Applied Materials

Two semiconductor-equipment names on my watchlist, not yet in the book — the lithography monopoly against the diversified deposition/etch leader.

Metric	ASML Holding (ASML)	Applied Materials (AMAT)
PEG ratio	2.69	1.52–1.64
5yr EBITDA growth	21.9%	n/a (EV/EBITDA 41.84–42.87x)
Capex (TTM)	$1.80B	n/a

PEG ratio, compared

ASML

2.69

AMAT

1.58

Same PEG ratio figures as the table above, plotted for a direct read. Bold = held in this book.

Market cap, P/E, PEG, EV/EBITDA, and capex sourced via public filings and financial-data aggregators (GuruFocus, StockAnalysis, company earnings releases), as of July 2026. PEG ratio sourced primarily from GuruFocus where available; different providers use different growth-rate assumptions, so figures elsewhere for the same stock can vary by several multiples. Gold-highlighted column(s) indicate the name(s) actually held in this book.

Why neither is in the book yet

ASML holds an effective monopoly on the extreme-ultraviolet lithography machines every leading-edge fab needs, which is as close to a structural moat as exists in semiconductors — but at a PEG of 2.69 it's pricing in a lot of that scarcity already. Applied Materials is more diversified across deposition, etch, and other equipment categories, and screens somewhat cheaper on PEG. Neither is a position yet mainly because my existing semiconductor exposure (SNDK, AMD, MU, INTC, ARM, AVGO) is already the largest single sleeve in the book, and adding equipment-layer exposure on top would concentrate the AI-infrastructure theme further rather than diversify it — a genuine screening trade-off, not a fundamentals objection to either name.