$ARM vs $LRCX: Weighing a High-Multiple AI IP Story Against Equipment Cyclicals ARM is a semiconductor intellectual property (IP) and chip-design company pivoting into data-center CPUs, while LRCX is a wafer-fabrication equipment maker serving memory and foundry customers. Both stocks have delivered outsized gains in recent market activity, but their drivers differ: ARM is riding cloud and agentic AI adoption, while LRCX is leveraged to memory and advanced-packaging equipment spending. ARM trades at a far higher earnings multiple (forward P/E well above 100), reflecting a longer-dated, higher-expectation growth story, whereas LRCX carries a lower forward P/E near 31 but has also re-rated sharply.