Applied Materials Rallies Samsung, Micron, and SK hynix for $5 Billion Deposition and Plasma R&D Hub in Silicon Valley

By NineScrolls Team · 2026-03-12 · 4 min read · Industry

Table of Contents

Overview

Applied Materials is assembling the three largest memory chipmakers in the world—Samsung Electronics, Micron Technology, and SK hynix—under one roof at its new EPIC Center in Silicon Valley. The $5 billion facility, set to become operational in spring 2026, will house more than 180,000 square feet of cleanroom space dedicated to collaborative R&D in advanced deposition, etch, and plasma process technologies. It represents the largest-ever U.S. investment in semiconductor equipment R&D.

The EPIC Center: Largest U.S. Semiconductor Equipment R&D Investment

The EPIC (Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization) Center in Sunnyvale, California is designed to compress the traditional 10-to-15-year chip development cycle by enabling parallel development, agile handoffs, and early access to next-generation processes. The facility will focus on atomic-scale innovations in patterning, etching, and thin film deposition—the core processes that define modern semiconductor manufacturing.

Applied Materials estimates that 40 to 45 percent of all semiconductor fabrication process steps rely on low-temperature plasma technologies, making advances in plasma-enhanced deposition and etch critical to each new process node. The EPIC Center is purpose-built to accelerate those advances.

Founding Partners Line Up

Samsung Electronics was announced as the first founding member in February 2026. On March 10, Applied Materials revealed two additional partnerships in rapid succession:

Micron Technology will establish a lab-to-fab pipeline between the EPIC Center and its innovation hub in Boise, Idaho, focusing on advanced DRAM, high-bandwidth memory (HBM), and NAND storage for AI workloads.

SK hynix signed a long-term collaboration agreement on March 10 to co-develop next-generation DRAM and HBM. Engineers from both companies will work side-by-side at the facility on materials science, process integration, and 3D advanced packaging.

The co-development programs across all three partners target technologies several process nodes beyond the current generation, with emphasis on new materials and atomic-scale deposition and etch processes for advanced logic and memory.

New Deposition and Plasma Systems Target 2nm Node

Applied Materials also recently unveiled three new systems that address critical thin film deposition and plasma processing challenges at the 2nm gate-all-around (GAA) transistor node:

Viva Pure Radical Treatment — Smooths GAA silicon nanosheets with atomic-level precision to boost transistor performance. The system is already being adopted by leading logic chipmakers for advanced channel engineering at 2nm and beyond.

Sym3 Z Magnum Etch System — Delivers angstrom-level 3D trench profile control using a second-generation pulsed voltage technology (PVT2) that enables independent ion-angle and ion-energy tuning. The Sym3 Z platform has achieved tool-of-record status in 2nm logic manufacturing, with more than 250 chambers deployed in the field.

Spectral ALD System — An atomic layer deposition system that deposits molybdenum contacts to replace tungsten, reducing critical contact resistance by up to 15 percent compared to current industry benchmarks. This addresses the key bottleneck at the transistor-to-wiring interface.

Market Context

The timing aligns with significant growth across the semiconductor equipment sector. The global wafer fab equipment market is projected to grow from $36.85 billion in 2025 to $66.49 billion by 2035, according to SNS Insider. Atomic layer deposition holds a dominant 35.5 percent share of the WFE market and is the fastest-growing segment, expanding at a 7.38 percent CAGR.

The semiconductor PVD equipment market alone grew to $20.10 billion in 2026 and is projected to reach $29.30 billion by 2032. North America leads globally in wafer fab equipment, holding a 34.8 percent market share, bolstered by CHIPS Act incentives that include a 25 percent investment tax credit for semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

What This Means for the Equipment Industry

The EPIC Center consolidates a clear trend: the most consequential advances in semiconductor manufacturing now hinge on precision plasma processing and thin film deposition. As chipmakers push to 2nm and beyond, the demands on deposition uniformity, plasma control, and atomic-scale process engineering are intensifying. Applied Materials is betting $5 billion that co-locating equipment makers and chipmakers in a shared cleanroom will produce breakthroughs faster than the traditional siloed approach.

For the broader equipment ecosystem—including suppliers of plasma sources, deposition targets, vacuum components, and process monitoring tools—the EPIC Center signals sustained demand for higher-precision hardware at every level of the supply chain.

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