Applied Materials investing up to $4B in new chip research center
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Applied Materials (NASDAQ:AMAT) is investing up to $4B into a new semiconductor research center, a project benefiting from support from the government's CHIPS and Science Act.
The new Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization (EPIC) Center will be set up at an Applied campus in Silicon Valley and feature more than 180,000 square feet of cleanroom in which chipmakers, universities and ecosystem partners can collaborate.
Applied believes it will cut the time needed to bring a technology from concept to commercialization by several years, while boosting success rate and return on research/development investment.
âThis investment presents a golden opportunity to re-engineer the way the global industry collaborates to deliver the foundational semiconductor process and manufacturing technologies needed to sustain rapid improvements in energy-efficient, high-performance computing," said CEO Gary Dickerson.
The company will make incremental capital investments of up to $4B over the next seven years, it says, but plans to complete the new innovation center by early 2026. It will become the nexus of more than $25B in company R&D in its first 10 years, Applied Materials said.
Aside from 1,500 construction jobs during building, it's expected to create up to 2,000 new engineering jobs in Silicon Valley and "potentially another 11,000 jobs in other industries."