InvestmentsTop Global NewsMarketsReal Estate Applied Materials to buy Japan’s Kokusai to bolster memory chip business By financialnews_rlv83x - July 1, 2019 0 137 U.S. chip gear maker Applied Materials Inc on Monday agreed to buy Japanese peer Kokusai Electric for US$2.2 billion from KKR & Co Inc, as it bets on rising demand for memory chips used in data centres, 5G phones and AI-powered devices.