Applied Materials and Intel Partner on AI Chipmaking at EPIC Center

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Applied Materials announced on October 6, 2026 that it is working with Intel to accelerate development of chipmaking innovations for next-generation transistors, interconnects and advanced packaging technologies. The collaboration links Applied’s EPIC Center in Silicon Valley with Intel’s research and development campus in Hillsboro, Oregon, with the stated aim of shortening the time-to-market of advanced semiconductor technologies essential to AI computing.

Applied said the effort builds on the companies’ long history of working together to solve complex semiconductor device scaling challenges.

Teams from the two companies are collaborating on next-generation materials, process technologies and device architectures for advanced logic nodes targeting AI workloads, and will continue this work at the EPIC Center. The collaboration spans both front-end and back-end-of-line advancements, including interconnect scaling, and also involves developing advanced packaging technologies for Foveros-based 3D stacking.

Applied said the packaging work supports higher interconnect density, improved power delivery and enhanced thermal performance for high-performance compute platforms designed to accelerate emerging agentic AI workloads.

Applied President and CEO Gary Dickerson said the two companies share a decades-long history of deep collaboration focused on pushing the boundaries of materials engineering to advance the semiconductor roadmap. “Bringing our teams together at the EPIC Center will deepen that partnership and accelerate the transistor, interconnect and packaging innovations needed to drive the future of AI computing,” he said.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said demand for AI computing is driving the need for major advances in performance, power efficiency and packaging, and that Intel is focused on delivering those innovations in close collaboration with partners across the ecosystem.