Applied Materials and SK hynix Form $5 B R&D Alliance at Silicon Valley EPIC Center
Applied Materials will invest up to $5 billion to open its Silicon Valley EPIC Center this year, hosting SK hynix as a founding partner for AI memory R&D collaboration. Joint programs will target new materials, 3D advanced packaging and HBM innovations to accelerate next-generation DRAM commercialization.
1. Partnership Details
Applied Materials and SK hynix have signed a long-term collaboration agreement to co-locate engineers at the new EPIC Center in Silicon Valley, aiming to co-innovate on next-generation DRAM and high-bandwidth memory for AI and high-performance computing.
2. EPIC Center Investment
Applied Materials is committing up to $5 billion in phased capital spending to establish the EPIC Center, designed to accelerate technology transfer from early-stage R&D to high-volume manufacturing and provide chipmakers earlier access to breakthrough tools.
3. Innovation Focus
Initial co-innovation programs will explore new materials engineering, complex process integration and 3D advanced packaging to improve performance, energy efficiency and manufacturability of future AI-optimized memory architectures.