Applied Materials debuts a 600,000-square-foot AI-chip research center

Applied Materials has unveiled a new meeting place for the companies building AI’s underlying hardware: a 600,000-square-foot semiconductor research center in Sunnyvale, California. The EPIC facility will put teams from major chipmakers alongside its engineers, giving them early access to equipment used to develop new generations of processors and memory chips.

The unveiling followed a two-year construction project at Applied’s Sunnyvale campus. Total capital investment is expected to reach $5 billion, rather than representing a completed spending total. In its May announcement about the center’s TSMC partnership, Applied said capital spending would scale over time as customer projects commence. The company describes EPIC as the largest-ever U.S. investment in advanced semiconductor equipment research and development.

Rivals under one roof, with private test spaces

Intel, TSMC, Micron, SK Hynix and Samsung will each have researchers on-site. They will work with Applied Materials engineers and gain earlier access to the equipment supplier’s newest tools. The research covers both microprocessors and memory chips, bringing companies working on different parts of the computing stack into the same facility.

Co-location does not mean every competitor will share a test bench. Rival chipmakers will have their own private test facilities, equipped with advanced chipmaking gear and supported by dedicated Applied teams. Fortune describes Micron and SK Hynix as examples of competitors using that arrangement. Applied’s earlier partnership announcement calls the center a secure collaborative environment.

The building’s clean rooms will occupy an area equivalent to three football fields. These are the spaces where researchers operate machines that etch microscopic circuits into silicon wafers. That gives the collaboration a physical testing environment, not just offices for coordinating research: chipmakers can work directly with Applied’s teams and equipment inside the center.

Having innovators co-located together, having earlier access to the technologies that enable new AI architectures, is a complete game changer

Gary Dickerson, Applied Materials CEO, speaking to Fortune at the unveiling

TSMC’s agenda reaches inside the chip

The research program predates this week’s unveiling. On May 11, 2026, Applied announced an innovation partnership with TSMC at EPIC, building on more than 30 years of collaboration. That announcement supplies a concrete picture of the work planned inside the center: developing materials, equipment and manufacturing processes for the next generations of semiconductor devices.

• Power, speed and size: Process technologies are intended to improve power use, performance and chip area across successive generations of advanced logic chips.
• More complex structures: New materials and equipment will target precise construction of three-dimensional transistors and interconnects—the wiring that connects chip components.
• Manufacturing consistency: Process integration work will aim to improve yield, variability control and reliability as devices become smaller and more vertically stacked.

A shorter path to production—not a production plant

Applied says EPIC’s collaboration could reduce the time needed to take a new chip architecture from concept to commercialization. Its stated target is as little as six years, compared with a typical 10 to 12 years. That is a projected benefit, not a measured result from the newly unveiled facility. Dickerson’s explanation is that earlier technical testing can reveal what is feasible and help researchers avoid dead ends.

EPIC itself is for research, not commercial chip production. The intended manufacturing payoff comes later, when technologies developed there move into high-volume factories. Applied also says the customer programs will give it visibility across several generations of chip technology, helping guide its own research investments. The center therefore serves both customers developing chips and the equipment maker deciding which technologies to pursue.