Applied Materials’ $5 billion AI lab aims to cut chip development time in half—and restore Silicon Valley’s edge
Source: Fortune ·
Applied Materials, the leading maker of chipmaking equipment, officially unveiled its EPIC chip R&D center with partner companies including Intel, Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung Electronics.
From the source
Silicon Valley has built some of the world’s most impressive and valuable companies, with names like Apple, Alphabet, and Meta, worth trillions of dollars apiece. When it comes to building the actual facilities where chips, computers, and other game-changing innovations are created, however, America’s tech capital has much less to show. Most chip facilities are now located overseas or out of state, and the most striking thing about Silicon Valley’s landscape of low-slung buildings and office parks is just how unimposing it is. That makes what Applied Materials—the world’s largest chipmaking equipment producer—did on Monday so unusual. The 59-year-old company officially unveiled its new EPIC semiconductor research and development facility, a two-year construction project located at Applied Materials’ Sunnyvale, Calif. campus, just down the road from its headquarters. Quite simply: it’s the biggest thing around. The massive 600,000-square-foot structure of glass, concrete, and steel…