Profits more than doubled to $1.72 billion, or $1.87 per share, in the quarter, from $841 million, or 91 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding items, the company earned $1.90 per share, beating analysts' average estimate of $1.77, according to Refinitiv data.
The company's semiconductor systems business, which contains most of its tool sales, had sales of $4.45 billion, the highest ever for the segment and above analyst estimates of $4.27 billion, according to data from FactSet.
Applied said that only about half of the revenue for computing chip tools came from equipment used for leading-edge chips. The rest came from tools that were once considered legacy tools used to make older styles of chips.
But in recent years those tools have found new life making sensors and radio chips that help connect devices to wireless networks. Everyday things from stop lights to factory machines are now being connected to data centers, where their performance is analyzed and optimized.