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Applied Materials chief executive Gary Dickerson expects the company’s revenue to double over the next few years, according to Bloomberg. He also pointed to the company’s newly opened $5bn Silicon Valley research centre, built to speed work on next-generation chips.

That is a forward-looking target, not a result already in the books. Bloomberg’s report does not establish that AI alone would drive the expected growth, despite the headline’s confident little nudge in that direction. The forecast gives investors and chip watchers a useful marker for the company’s ambitions as demand for computing infrastructure expands. The hard part, as ever, is turning a forecast into revenue.

Discuss: What evidence should investors need before treating a chipmaker’s growth target as more than a promising projection?

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