Applied Materials Opens $5B Silicon Valley R&D Center to Speed Up Chip Innovation

Applied Materials Inc. opened the $5 billion Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization (EPIC) Center in Silicon Valley to provide a shared R&D space for the commercial chipmaking industry. The 600,000-square-foot facility houses nearly four acres of cleanroom space and is designed to cut new chip development lifecycles by at least 30%. Founding partners include major chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Intel Corp., Samsung Electronics, Micron Technology, and SK hynix, alongside academic researchers. Engineering teams will collaborate on co-optimizing 3D architectures, advanced packaging techniques, and low-resistance wiring in parallel rather than sequentially. Applied Chief Executive Gary Dickerson noted that the facility's accelerated timeline is critical for easing the enormous energy demands of expanding artificial intelligence compute infrastructure. "The goal here is to cut that whole cycle time at least 30%, improving the time to market." — Gary Dickerson