Applied Materials Brings Besi Into EPIC Center as Innovation Partner

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Applied Materials and BE Semiconductor Industries (Besi) announced an expansion of their longstanding strategic partnership on October 1, 2026, with Besi joining Applied’s EPIC Center in Silicon Valley as an Innovation Partner and extending a joint development program the companies launched in 2020.

The expansion extends the companies’ co-innovation beyond hybrid bonding into new interconnect architectures and applications supporting the semiconductor industry’s AI-driven scaling roadmap, according to the joint announcement. With the AI infrastructure build-out driving demand for higher-density, higher-bandwidth chip-to-chip and chip-to-package interconnects, the companies said the expanded partnership is intended to give mutual customers earlier access to co-optimized process and assembly solutions spanning the full advanced packaging flow, from wafer-level hybrid bonding through panel-scale integration.

In 2020, Applied and Besi established a joint Center of Excellence at Applied’s Advanced Packaging Development Center in Singapore. The center paired 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. The companies say the collaboration resulted in Kinex, which they describe as the industry’s first integrated die-to-wafer hybrid bonding system.

Richard Blickman, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Management of Besi, said the Singapore center of excellence has been foundational to Besi’s hybrid bonding roadmap. He described joining the EPIC Center as a natural next step, one that gives Besi a seat alongside leading logic, memory and systems companies as it advances TCB scaling, die-on-panel integration and the interconnect technologies set to define next-generation AI and photonics systems.

Gary Dickerson, President and CEO of Applied