Chip equipment maker Lam Research to invest more than $3 billion to expand R&D labs

• AI-focused spending by major technology companies has fueled demand for advanced chips, boosting investment in the equipment used to manufacture them.
• Lam Research is making the investment with the intention of staying ahead of customers' needs as the pace of innovation requires chips with new architectures, different materials and complex features engineered with nanoscale precision, CEO Tim Archer said.
• Lam supplies deposition, etch and cleaning equipment used to build the microscopic layers and patterns that form the circuits inside semiconductor chips.
• The company said its global lab network, which spans the U.S., Asia and Europe, supports over 1 million experiments annually.
• The integrated lab network has helped shorten process development by up to 2.5 times in recent customer engagements, Lam said.
• The company plans to begin expanding the lab network this year, with the goal of increasing innovation velocity.

Aug. 13 (Reuters) - Lam Research said on Thursday it intends to invest more than $3 billion in the next five years to expand its global research and development lab network, as it seeks to increase experiment capacity and speed up product development.

The U.S. chip equipment maker said the multi-site expansion is expected to increase its experiment capacity by over 50%.