March 7 (Reuters) - Chip equipment maker Applied Materials Inc said on Monday it appointed former Xilinx finance chief Brice Hill as its chief financial officer.

Hill, 55, succeeds Dan Durn, who stepped down in October to take over as CFO of software company Adobe Inc.

Hill was the CFO of Xilinx when chip designer Advanced Micro Devices Inc agreed to buy the company. The record $50 billion chip industry deal closed in February.

Hill has also served in several finance roles at Intel Corp and General Motors.

Applied Materials is among the biggest makers of machinery used to manufacture semiconductors and counts Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), South Korea's Samsung and Intel among its top customers. (Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)