Applied Materials announced it is working with Intel Corporation to develop next-generation transistors, interconnects, and advanced packaging technologies. The effort will use capabilities from Applied’s EPIC Center in Silicon Valley and Intel’s R&D campus in Hillsboro, Oregon. The collaboration builds on the companies’ history of addressing semiconductor device scaling challenges and targets technologies for AI chips and systems.
Teams from Applied Materials and Intel are collaborating on next-generation materials, process technologies, and device architectures for advanced logic nodes targeting AI workloads. This work will continue at the EPIC Center and spans front-end and back-end-of-line advancements, including interconnect scaling. It also includes development of advanced packaging technologies for Foveros-based 3D stacking to support higher interconnect density, improved power delivery, and enhanced thermal performance for high-performance compute platforms designed for agentic AI workloads.
Gary Dickerson, President and CEO of Applied Materials, said: “Applied and Intel share a decades-long history of deep collaboration focused on pushing the boundaries of materials engineering to advance the semiconductor roadmap. Bringing our teams together at the EPIC Center will deepen that partnership and accelerate the transistor, interconnect and packaging innovations needed to drive the future of AI computing.”
Lip-Bu Tan, CEO of Intel, said: “The demand for AI computing is driving the need for major advances in performance, power efficiency, and packaging. Intel is focused on delivering those innovations and doing it in close collaboration with partners across the ecosystem. Applied Materials is an important partner, and we look forward to expanding our work together at the EPIC Center to help accelerate the path from the lab to high-volume manufacturing in the United States.”
Dr. Prabu Raja, President of the Semiconductor Products Group at Applied Materials, said: “With the chipmaking roadmap becoming more complex at each process node, accelerating innovations in semiconductor devices, interconnects and packaging requires deeper collaboration across R&D and manufacturing. We look forward to working closely with Intel as a founding partner of the EPIC Center to shorten development cycles and bring new technologies to market faster.”
Naga Chandrasekaran, Executive Vice President, Chief Technology and Operations Officer and General Manager of Intel Foundry, said: “Accelerating our R&D to keep pace with the rapid buildout of AI infrastructure is critical to delivering the technology, manufacturing excellence and foundry services our customers expect from Intel Foundry. Applied Materials’ new EPIC Center provides an environment where our teams can collaborate even more closely and at higher velocity to accelerate materials development and process innovations.”
Applied’s EPIC (Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization) Center in Silicon Valley is scheduled to be operationally ready this year. It is designed to reduce the time to commercialize technologies from early-stage research to full-scale manufacturing. For chipmakers, the center will provide earlier access to Applied’s R&D portfolio, faster cycles of learning, and accelerated transfer of next-generation technologies into high-volume manufacturing within a secure collaborative environment. Co-innovation programs at the center will also provide Applied with greater multi-node visibility to guide R&D investments while increasing R&D productivity and value sharing. Capital spending is expected to scale over time to approximately $5 billion as customer projects commence. The center represents the largest-ever U.S. investment in advanced semiconductor equipment and process technology R&D.
In a related announcement dated October 1, 2026, Applied Materials and BE Semiconductor Industries N.V. (Besi) announced an expansion of their strategic partnership, with Besi joining Applied’s EPIC Center as an Innovation Partner. The collaboration builds on a joint development program launched in 2020 and the companies’ joint Hybrid Bonding Center of Excellence in Singapore. It extends beyond hybrid bonding into new interconnect architectures and applications.
In 2020, Applied and Besi established a joint Center of Excellence at Applied’s Advanced Packaging Development Center in Singapore, combining Applied’s process expertise in etch, planarization, deposition, wafer cleaning, metrology, inspection, and particle defect control with Besi’s die placement, interconnect, and assembly technology. That work resulted in Kinex, an integrated die-to-wafer hybrid bonding system.
The expanded collaboration targets next-generation 3D IC scaling, logic and memory integration, and photonics applications. It expands beyond die-to-wafer hybrid bonding to new hybrid bonding platforms, scaling of thermo-compression bonding (TCB), and new die-on-wafer, die-on-die, and die-on-panel architectures. Expected R&D programs include new platforms for die-to-wafer hybrid bonding, scaling of TCB and its surrounding process ecosystem, new die-on-wafer, die-on-die, and die-on-panel integration platforms, and photonics-enabled interconnect applications supporting co-packaged optics and AI system scaling.
Gary Dickerson said: “Besi has been a trusted partner since we began co-developing next-generation hybrid bonding solutions. With Besi joining EPIC as an Innovation Partner, we’re extending that collaboration across the interconnect technologies our customers need to scale AI systems. Bringing this work into Applied’s EPIC Center gives both companies earlier visibility into where the roadmap is headed and lets us co-optimize the full packaging flow.”
Richard Blickman, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Management of Besi, said: “Our center of excellence with Applied in Singapore has been foundational to Besi’s hybrid bonding roadmap. Joining Applied’s EPIC Center as an Innovation Partner is a natural next step, giving us a seat alongside the leading logic, memory and systems companies as we advance TCB scaling, die-on-panel integration and the interconnect technologies that will define the next generation of AI and photonics systems.”
Dr. Prabu Raja said: “Advanced packaging is no longer a back-end assembly step – it is a materials engineering challenge that demands the same precision and cleanliness as front-end wafer fabrication. Developing these technologies together with Besi engineers in a front-end R&D environment like the EPIC Center will allow us to treat them as one connected flow rather than a series of isolated steps. That gives our mutual customers earlier access to co-optimized solutions and a faster path from development to high-volume manufacturing.”
In an announcement dated September 29, 2026, Applied Materials and KIOXIA Corporation announced that KIOXIA will join Applied’s EPIC Center as an innovation partner to advance next-generation memory technologies. The companies will work on advanced memory-cell and structure creation, multi-chip stacking architectures, and new materials engineering approaches to increase memory density and performance.
Areas of focus include advanced memory cell and structure creation for higher-density memory architectures for AI applications; multi-chip stacking for next-generation memory to enable chip integration that increases memory density and performance within constrained form factors; advanced packaging for stacked memory to improve integration and interconnect performance in complex multi-die memory solutions; and materials engineering innovations that enable next-generation memory structures while supporting manufacturability at scale.
Gary Dickerson said: “AI infrastructure requires memory solutions that can deliver dramatically higher density, greater bandwidth and improved energy efficiency. By bringing KIOXIA’s deep expertise in memory technology together with Applied’s materials engineering innovations at the EPIC Center, we’re creating a powerful partnership to define what’s possible in next-generation memory.”
Hiroo Ota, President and CEO of KIOXIA Corporation, said: “At KIOXIA, we have always believed that the possibility of memory is defined by the ability to stretch the boundaries of materials and process innovation. Our collaboration with Applied Materials reflects our shared commitment to driving memory innovation, and we are excited to partner at the EPIC Center to achieve advanced breakthroughs.”
Dr. Prabu Raja said: “Memory is at the center of the AI innovation roadmap, and the challenges of increasing memory density while managing cost and complexity require breakthroughs across materials, equipment and process technology. We look forward to partnering with KIOXIA at the EPIC Center, where our teams will drive advances in AI memory through deep co-innovation.”
Minori Kajimoto, General Manager of Advanced Memory Development at KIOXIA, said: “Partnering with Applied Materials at the EPIC Center gives us a unique environment to tackle the hardest challenges in next-generation memory. By having top innovators from KIOXIA and Applied Materials working side by side, we aim to accelerate the commercialization of breakthroughs in memory and packaging technologies that achieve new levels of integration and performance for AI computing.”
KIOXIA joins Applied Materials’ EPIC Center ecosystem, which includes chipmakers, chip designers, equipment partners, and universities.
