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Applied Materials unveiled a massive $5 billion research facility in Silicon Valley on Monday – a key part of CEO Gary Dickerson’s plan to speed up development of the cutting-edge computer chips driving the artificial intelligence boom.
The Santa Clara-based firm – a key supplier of equipment and software that tech giants like TSMC, Intel and Samsung use to build chips – is aiming to achieve faster breakthroughs by having scientists, engineers and researchers from companies and universities around the world collaborate under one roof.
Advanced AI models are progressing at a rapid clip, making it essential for industry leaders to improve a process that currently can take more than a decade from lab breakthrough to full-fledged production, Applied Materials CEO Gary Dickerson said in an interview with The Post
“There are five to 10 key technologies that determine performance and yield [of semiconductors],” Dickerson said. “It’s all about, how do we accelerate all of that? The goal here is to cut that whole cycle time at least 30%, improving the time to market. There’s enormous value in doing that.”
The EPIC Center is billed as the world’s largest semiconductor equipment and manufacturing process R&D facility. The foundation of the 600,000-square-foot facility holds enough concrete to fill 34 Olympic-sized swimming pools, while its structure contains enough steel to build two Eiffel Towers, according to the company.
Applied Materials’ founding partners at the facility include TSMC, Intel, Samsung, Micron and SK Hynix. Other contributors will include Broadcom, as well as researchers from Arizona State University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and UCLA Samueli School of Engineering – all of whom will work in tandem with Applied’s internal teams.
Dickerson said improvements in the efficiency and performance of advanced computer chips could help alleviate the American public’s concerns about energy-guzzling data centers, which are key to maintaining the AI models built by Anthropic and OpenAI.
“It’s absolutely essential,” Dickerson said. “You’re improving that energy-efficient computing many times versus where we’re at today. It’s many, many times better than where we’re at today.”
Applied Materials declined to comment on specific projects that are planned at the EPIC Center, though Dickerson expects breakthroughs in chip manufacturing to have massive implications across healthcare, education and industrial production.
Better chips will also mean better smartphones and computers in the hands of consumers, Dickerson said.
“You’re going to see new consumer devices that go beyond the smartphone, that I have some visibility into, that will change human to human interaction and human to world interaction,” he said.
Computer chip production has emerged as a major flashpoint in the high-stakes AI race between the US and China. The Trump administration has imposed export controls on the most advanced chips made by industry leader Nvidia, and officials have pointed to the US lead in development of the hardware as a key advantage.
Part of the idea behind the EPIC Center, according to Dickerson, is to bring the best researchers and engineers from around the world together to drive advancements – and to eliminate the friction that comes from having key parts of the chip supply chain isolated from each other.
“You want to build the best innovation team in the world,” Dickerson said. “That’s what’s going to determine who wins and who loses.”