Applied Materials and Intel announced a chipmaking research collaboration on 6 October 2026 that includes Foveros-based 3D packaging work at Applied’s EPIC Center, Applied Materials said.
Key points
- Intel is a founding partner of Applied Materials’ EPIC Center, according to an Applied executive.
- The companies plan work on transistors, interconnects and advanced packaging at sites in Silicon Valley and Oregon.
- Applied previously put its expected gross incremental investment in the centre at up to $4 billion over seven years.
Intel joins EPIC Center research
The collaboration brings together research at Applied’s EPIC Center in Silicon Valley and Intel’s campus in Hillsboro, Oregon. Applied said the companies are already working on materials, manufacturing processes and device designs for advanced logic chips intended for AI workloads. They plan to continue that work at the EPIC Center, which Applied expects to be operationally ready in 2026.
Prabu Raja, president of Applied’s Semiconductor Products Group, called Intel a founding partner of the centre. He said closer work between research and manufacturing teams was intended to shorten development cycles as chip designs became more complex. Applied described the broader aim as moving new technologies from research into production more quickly.
The joint programme covers transistor development and interconnect scaling. Applied said it includes work at the front end of chip production and at the back end, where connections between components are built. The packaging strand concerns Foveros-based 3D stacking. According to Applied, that work is intended to increase interconnect density and improve power delivery and heat management in computing systems designed for AI workloads.
Intel chief executive Lip-Bu Tan said the company wanted to expand its work with Applied to move developments from laboratory research towards high-volume manufacturing in the United States. Naga Chandrasekaran, who leads Intel Foundry alongside his technology and operations responsibilities, tied the collaboration to Intel’s work on materials and manufacturing processes for foundry customers.
Applied’s EPIC investment plan
Applied first announced the EPIC Center on 22 May 2023. Applied then expected the centre to require up to $4 billion in gross additional capital spending over seven years, Unite.AI reported. Applied’s plan included more than 180,000 square feet of cleanroom space for work with chipmakers, universities and other partners.
Applied described the facility as a place where chipmakers could work with equipment and technologies before installing them at their own sites. It said the arrangement would let customers extend their internal pilot lines and gain earlier access to its research portfolio. For Applied, the company said, joint programmes at the centre would provide a view of customers’ requirements across multiple chipmaking nodes to guide its research spending.
Gary Dickerson, Applied’s president and chief executive, said the Intel agreement would deepen an existing collaboration between the companies. Applied’s description of the EPIC programme places its equipment and process researchers alongside chipmakers earlier in development, before a technology moves to full-scale manufacturing. The company says that approach is intended to shorten the time between early research and commercial use.
KIOXIA and Besi join EPIC programme
Intel is one of several companies linked to the planned facility. AI Affairs has also reported Applied’s EPIC Center partnership with KIOXIA on memory and Besi’s addition to its packaging work. The Intel collaboration spans logic processes as well as packaging, including a technology used in Intel’s Foveros-based stacking.
Applied identifies semiconductor demand, customers’ technology requirements, the development and protection of intellectual property, and the EPIC Center’s ability to meet its objectives among the risks to its plans.
