Applied Materials Inc. has announced plans to invest up to $4 billion in a new research center in Sunnyvale, California. The Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization (EPIC) Center is expected to create up to 2,000 engineering jobs and host $25 billion of research work over its first decade. The center will bring together staff from research universities and major chipmakers such as Intel Corp, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.
The announcement comes as the U.S. is trying to bring back advanced semiconductor manufacturing with a $52 billion measure passed last year. Applied Materials hopes to reduce the time it takes to turn ideas from research universities into tools used in factories by nearly a third by having the three groups carry out some of their work in parallel. U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to attend an Applied Materials’ event in Silicon Valley announcing the center, along with top executives from major chip companies. The Commerce Department has received more than 300 statements of interest for the $39 billion portion of the CHIPS Act for manufacturing incentives.