应用材料为硅谷50亿美元EPIC研发中心举办落成典礼，TSMC、Intel、三星、美光、SK海力士等为创始合作伙伴

Applied Materials has opened its Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization (EPIC) Center in Sunnyvale, California, positioning the Silicon Valley site as a new hub for semiconductor research and manufacturing development. The company expects spending at the facility to rise over time to about US$5 billion as customer projects ramp up, underscoring how AI demand is reshaping the chip equipment industry.

The opening comes as semiconductor makers face mounting pressure to develop more advanced technologies for high-performance computing, AI infrastructure, and next-generation memory and logic chips. Applied Materials said the center is designed to bring chipmakers, equipment suppliers, systems companies, and universities into a single environment to accelerate the path from research to mass production.
CEO Gary Dickerson said the scale and complexity of AI infrastructure are forcing the industry to rethink how it collaborates on new technologies. He said no single company can solve the emerging challenges alone, and that closer coordination will be needed to commercialize new materials, processes, and manufacturing tools faster.
The EPIC Center covers about 600,000 square feet and includes nearly 4 acres of cleanroom space. Applied Materials described it as one of the most complex research and development construction projects ever built, with more than 6 million labor hours invested in the facility. The site is intended to let materials development, equipment innovation, process integration, and pilot production advance in parallel rather than in separate stages.
The company said that model is meant to shorten development cycles and improve the chances that new technologies will work in production fabs. By involving customer engineering teams earlier, Applied Materials said it can help partners test and refine materials and equipment before deploying them at scale, which could reduce risk and speed up commercialization.
A larger collaboration model for semiconductor development
Applied Materials said EPIC was built around the idea that future chip technologies will require broader collaboration than the industry has used historically. Instead of moving step by step through isolated research, process development, and pilot manufacturing stages, the center brings those functions together in one location.
Dickerson said the most advanced semiconductor technologies needed for the AI era are too complex for any company to complete independently. He said EPIC is intended to provide a secure and collaborative setting where partners can work directly with Applied Materials scientists and engineers on roadmap challenges tied to future products.
Prabu Raja, president of Applied Materials' Semiconductor Products Group, said materials innovation has moved beyond the traditional linear model because atomic-scale interfaces can behave unexpectedly. He said combining materials, process technology, and equipment development in one place should improve the odds of success for new technologies and help customers reach high yields sooner.
Applied Materials said the center has already drawn in founding partners from across the industry, including Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), Intel, Samsung Electronics, Micron Technology, and SK Hynix. Innovation partners include Broadcom, Advantest, Screen Holdings, Kioxia, and Besi, while research partners include Arizona State University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Stanford University, the University of California, Berkeley, and UCLA Samueli School of Engineering.
TSMC co-chief operating officer Y.J. Mii attended the opening ceremony on behalf of chairman C.C. Wei. TSMC said its long relationship with Applied Materials has helped the industry push through multiple technology transitions, from the 0.35-micron era three decades ago to today's 2nm generation. The company said the new center should give it earlier access to equipment innovations needed for future energy-efficient AI architectures, advanced packaging, and low-resistance wiring.
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said in a prerecorded video that AI is creating trillion-dollar opportunities for the semiconductor industry, but that capturing them will require continued advances in transistors, interconnects, and packaging. He said Intel expects a single package to contain more than 1 trillion transistors by 2030, a scale that will demand closer cooperation with equipment partners as development costs rise.
Applied Materials said EPIC will also help it identify future technology challenges earlier, guide research and development spending, and integrate its systems and services more closely into customer roadmaps. The company expects more chipmakers, suppliers, and research institutions to join the ecosystem as the center expands its role in the industry.
For Applied Materials, the facility is meant to serve as both a research base and a commercial bridge, connecting early-stage innovation with production-ready manufacturing. As AI chips grow more complex and costly to develop, the company is betting that tighter collaboration will become a competitive necessity across the semiconductor supply chain.