EPIC Center by Applied Materials: status and timeline

EPIC Center

Build the world's largest advanced semiconductor process technology and manufacturing equipment R&D facility, through collaboration between chip companies and suppliers.

ProtoStage 2 of 5

Operational as of Q2 2026. 180k+ sq ft cleanroom hosts collaborative R&D with chipmakers and universities.

Checked 11 Oct0 updates this week

Milestones

Next · First co-developed processes enter production

EPIC Center announced with $5B investment2024Complete.
Samsung joins as first founding memberFeb 2026Complete.
EPIC Center becomes operationalQ2 2026Complete.
First co-developed processes enter productionTarget 2027Not yet reached.

Upcoming

2027First co-developed processes enter production (next)

Current obstacles

Coordination across companiesSamsung, TSMC, Intel and SK Hynix are competitors. Getting them to share R&D data and work at a shared facility requires careful IP agreements.
Equipment costNew deposition and etch tools are expensive to develop and build. EPIC's cost must stay within foundries' capex budgets.

Physics limits

Physics of feature scalingAs features shrink below 3nm, quantum effects (tunneling, interference) make precise control harder. No equipment vendor can overcome the laws of physics.
Material propertiesEach new material used in advanced nodes has different deposition rates, adhesion and etching properties. Engineering all three simultaneously is physically constrained.

How it works

3 parts

Co-development

Parallel process and equipment innovation

Chip makers and equipment suppliers work together in real time, testing equipment ideas immediately and giving feedback simultaneously.

Shared facility

Multi-tenant R&D

Samsung, TSMC, Intel, SK Hynix work in the same facility, so ideas spread faster and equipment suppliers learn from all of them at once.

Speed

Accelerated cycles

Traditional chip development takes 10-15 years. EPIC's collaborative model aims to cut it in half by running processes in parallel.

Spec sheet

Spec	EPIC Center
Cleanroom space	180,000+ sq ft^R (reported)
Applied Materials investment	$5 billion^R (reported)

^R reported by the company

About Applied Materials

The team behind EPIC Center

Applied Materials

Chip equipment, EPIC Center, deposition, lithography

Applied Materials supplies semiconductor manufacturing equipment to every major foundry. The company operates the EPIC Center, a $5B Silicon Valley facility for collaborative chip equipment R&D with Samsung, TSMC, Intel and SK Hynix.

Applied Materials supplies deposition, etch and patterning equipment to chip foundries and memory makers.
The $5B EPIC Center in Silicon Valley is now operational with Samsung, TSMC, Intel and SK Hynix as founding members.
Partners collaborate on atomic-scale innovations to accelerate the chip development cycle from 10-15 years.

appliedmaterials.com (opens appliedmaterials.com)Company profile →

Founded: 196759 yrs
Headquarters: United States
Status: Public
Valuation: $283Bmarket capOct 2026
Staff: ~35,700Apr 2026
Works in: ComputingChipmaking toolsManufacturing
Coverage: 1 program · 1 updatelatest 11 Feb 2026checked 11 Oct
Customers: Samsung Electronics (opens samsung.com)TSMC (opens tsmc.com)SK Hynix (opens skhynix.com)Intel (opens intel.com)
People: Gary Dickerson (opens appliedmaterials.com)President and CEO

Spec

EPIC Center

Cleanroom space

180,000+ sq ft^R (reported)

Applied Materials investment

$5 billion^R (reported)