[Edaily Reporter SOYEON KIM ] SamsungElectronics and SK hynix are joining the world’s largest semiconductor research and development (R&D) collaboration hub. The facility, established in the U.S. by global semiconductor equipment manufacturer Applied Materials (AMAT), has also attracted major semiconductor companies such as TSMC, Intel, and Micron. As manufacturing processes become increasingly complex due to the growing performance demands of artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors, the plan is for semiconductor companies and equipment manufacturers to collaborate from the early stages of development to accelerate the commercialization of next-generation technologies.

According to industry sources on the 13th, AMAT unveiled the “EPIC Center” on the 12th (local time) in Sunnyvale, California, with a total investment of $5 billion (approximately 6.6 trillion won). It is the world’s largest facility dedicated to joint research and development of semiconductor process technologies and manufacturing equipment.

The most distinctive feature of the EPIC Center is its ability to carry out the entire process—from semiconductor technology development to mass production—within a single space. Previously, semiconductor materials research, equipment and process development, and pilot production were conducted in separate environments. The EPIC Center focuses on reducing the time and procedures involved in each development stage by enabling materials researchers, equipment developers, and semiconductor manufacturer engineers to work together.

SamsungElectronics and SK hynix are participating as founding partners of the EPIC Center alongside TSMC, Intel, and Micron. Semiconductor-related companies such as Broadcom, Advantest, Screen, Kioxia, and Vesi have also joined as innovation partners. Major universities, including Stanford University, UC Berkeley, and UCLA, are also participating in the joint research. Each company plans to collaborate with AMAT by contributing its own technology development projects and engineers.

SamsungElectronics plans to strengthen its collaboration with AMAT based on its technological capabilities spanning memory, advanced logic, and advanced packaging. Song Jae-hyuk, President and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of SamsungElectronics’ Device Solutions (DS) Division, emphasized, “SamsungElectronics is driving the advancement of computing technology in the AI era based on our technological capabilities spanning memory, advanced logic, and advanced packaging,” adding, “Through EPIC, we will further accelerate the process from the development of innovative technologies to their refinement and practical application.”

Kwak No-jeong, President and CEO of SK hynix, said, “The key challenge in AI computing is delivering data fast enough to enable increasingly powerful processors to perform at their maximum capacity.” He added, “Through our collaboration with AMAT, SK hynix will address major technological inflection points across High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), DRAM, and NAND.”

TSMC and Intel are also moving to secure next-generation semiconductor manufacturing technologies. TSMC will collaborate on the development of new semiconductor architectures, low-resistance interconnects, and advanced packaging technologies required for processes beyond 2 nanometers (nm; one-billionth of a meter). Wei Zhe-jia, Chairman and CEO of TSMC, expressed anticipation for the early acquisition of next-generation semiconductor equipment technology and the development of technologies such as advanced packaging, while Sanjay Mehrotra, Chairman and CEO of Micron, predicted that this collaboration would accelerate the transition from research to large-scale mass production of next-generation memory technology. Intel is advancing research and development in the fields of next-generation transistors, interconnects, and advanced packaging.

Gary Dickerson, Chairman and CEO of AMAT, emphasized, “As AI infrastructure expands, the demands of high-performance computing are creating unprecedented complexity across the entire semiconductor manufacturing technology development roadmap,” adding, “We must redesign our collaborative approach to the development and commercialization of next-generation semiconductor technologies.” The vision is for the world’s leading chip manufacturers, system designers, equipment partners, and researchers to collaborate at EPIC to drive AI innovation.