Does Applied Materials support Israel?

Acquired two Israeli semiconductor inspection/metrology companies for a combined $285 million in cash — Orbot Instruments for $110 million and Opal for $175 million (Opal's merger completed January 9, 1997). The deals created Applied Materials Israel, today the company's process diagnostics and control (PDC) division.

Applied Materials Israel donated about NIS 2 million (about $422,000) in 2002 to some 25 community projects, working with about 30 nonprofits, and said it intended to give a similar sum in 2003. Community relations manager Anthea Kessel said much of the budget went to science and technology education for children and young people from low socio-economic backgrounds, alongside university scholarships and support for students; hundreds of employees also volunteered, and the hours they donated were put at about NIS 150,000. The company then employed about 1,000 people at sites in Rehovot, Yokneam and Kiryat Gat.

Applied Materials Israel employees and management gave more than NIS 200,000 (about $42,000) to the corporate-giving organisation Matan in the company's fourth consecutive annual drive. The money came out of the bonuses employees received in December 2002, and the company matched the amount and doubled it; the total collected was 20% higher than the previous year's. Employees could direct their gift to a specific cause or organisation, and an Applied Materials employee sat on Matan's allocation committee.

Applied Materials' social-responsibility manager in Israel, Anthea Kessel, told Maariv on 20 August 2017 that the company's annual donations budget in Israel stood at about $700,000 a year, directed at technological and environmental education near its sites. She named two recipients: Tovanot BaChinuch, where the company funded work in a Rehovot primary school while an average of 160 employees mentored pupils or ran classes every week or two and staff renovated the school library and paid for a librarian; and Paamonim, whose household-finance counselling in the Rehovot area the company funds, with employees also accompanying families. That $700,000 is a recurring annual budget rather than the sum of a single gift, so no amount is recorded on this row.

Applied Materials Israel closed 2020 with donations totalling NIS 1.3 million (about $404,000): NIS 650,000 given by employees out of their personal bonuses, and an equal NIS 650,000 added by the company as a match. About NIS 500,000 of it passed through Matan – Investing in the Community and about NIS 170,000 went to Matan under the Israeli Fund for Mutual Guarantee during the year. The company, then employing about 1,700 people in Israel, also funded scholarships for dozens of teenagers at risk of dropping out of school, donated 400 computers for study, and bought produce from farmers hit by the COVID-19 crisis for distribution to families in need.

Announced a major expansion of its Rehovot site: 3,200 m² of added production space including a ~1,000 m² clean room raising production capability by 160%, plus 250 new hires. Annual revenues from Israeli operations were expected to exceed $1 billion for the first time, with roughly NIS 1 billion a year spent on Israeli suppliers.

After the October 7, 2023 attack, Applied Materials Israel rented an entire hotel in Rehovot's industrial zone to house families of employees from Gaza-border and other affected communities, provided financial aid to employees whose homes were damaged, and offered psychological support. Four employees were killed, and up to 300 employees (about 15% of the Israeli workforce) served in reserve duty while the company kept its Israeli operations running.

Applied Materials Israel hosted a pop-up branch of Café Otef — a chain run by residents evacuated from the Gaza-border communities — on its Rehovot Science Park campus, opened in the week before a 3 January 2025 report, together with the caterer Sodexo Israel and the Sderot municipality. The café is staffed by Sderot and Gaza-border residents, sells produce from growers and small businesses of the confrontation-line communities, and hosts exhibitions about Sderot since 7 October 2023. Under the arrangement with the Sderot Economic Development Company its profits go to Mital, a technology entrepreneurship centre for young people in Sderot, and the company also acts as a host for Sderot teenagers learning about nano-manufacturing and the chip industry. It was to operate through 2025. No sum was disclosed, and the café's profits are not the company's own money, so the amount column stays empty.

Applied Materials Israel's annual employee donation campaign — its 25th, run with Matan – Investing in the Community — reached a record NIS 1.9 million (about $529,000), reported on 12 February 2025 and almost double the previous year's. Employees gave close to NIS 1 million out of their personal bonuses and the company doubled every donation, so the figure is the two combined rather than corporate money alone. Of the total, NIS 387,000 was earmarked for an adventure sports park in Tal Shahar in memory of Eliran Yagar, an Applied Materials engineer and manager who volunteered for reserve duty in the Engineering Corps after 7 October 2023 although he was exempt, and was killed in battle in Gaza on 25 January 2024; the park was initiated by his colleagues, his wife and his family.

Inaugurated a new R&D center — a fourth building at its Rehovot Science Park campus — described by the company as part of 'hundreds of millions of dollars' in capital and operating investment in Israel over the preceding three years, with plans to recruit 300 additional employees in 2026.

Applied Materials Israel, headquartered in Rehovot's Science Park, is one of the company's most important R&D and manufacturing hubs and among the largest multinational tech employers in Israel: over 2,200 employees (up from ~1,800 in 2021, growth of more than 30% in five years) and more than $450 million a year in procurement from Israeli suppliers.