Applied Materials, UCLA Partner on AI Chip R&D at EPIC Center

Applied Materials has added the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering as a research collaborator at its Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization, or EPIC, Center in Silicon Valley, expanding the company’s academic partnerships around next-generation semiconductor development.

Researchers from UCLA will work alongside Applied Materials scientists and engineers to address semiconductor materials and process integration challenges. A central objective is to shorten the development cycle between university research, technology validation and eventual high-volume semiconductor manufacturing.

The collaboration will focus on areas including 3D chip scaling, advanced packaging and new materials designed to improve the energy efficiency of AI computing systems. UCLA researchers will also gain access to industry-scale semiconductor manufacturing equipment, allowing concepts developed in an academic environment to be tested under conditions closer to commercial chip production.

Dr Prabu Raja, President of the Semiconductor Products Group at Applied Materials, said the industry’s push to commercialise new AI chip technologies requires closer collaboration between semiconductor companies, equipment suppliers and research institutions. Applied Materials sees the EPIC Center as a shared development environment where technical breakthroughs can move more quickly towards manufacturing.

UCLA Brings Semiconductor Research Expertise

UCLA Samueli has research capabilities spanning semiconductor devices, materials, electronics and computing. The school is also home to the Center for Heterogeneous Integration and Performance Scaling, or CHIPS Lab, which brings together researchers working on semiconductor design, manufacturing and integration technologies.

The latest partnership will also complement UCLA’s broader Semiconductor Hub, which Applied Materials joined as a co-founding member earlier in 2026.

Ah-Hyung “Alissa” Park, Ronald and Valerie Sugar Dean of UCLA Samueli, said closer cooperation between universities and industry will be increasingly important as the semiconductor sector works to develop computing technologies for the AI era.

Applied Builds Wider EPIC Research Ecosystem

Applied Materials is developing the EPIC Center as a major collaborative semiconductor R&D platform bringing together chipmakers, equipment companies and universities.

The company expects investment in the facility to scale to approximately $5 billion as customer projects commence, making it what Applied describes as the largest US investment in advanced semiconductor equipment and process technology research and development.

UCLA joins a growing group of research and industry partners associated with the facility. Applied Materials has already announced collaborations involving TSMC, Samsung Electronics, Intel, Kioxia, Broadcom, Advantest, SCREEN Semiconductor Solutions and UC Berkeley, covering areas ranging from leading-edge logic and memory to advanced packaging, wafer cleaning and semiconductor testing.

The expansion of the EPIC ecosystem reflects a broader shift in semiconductor R&D. As AI processors become more complex, progress increasingly depends on simultaneous advances in materials, transistor structures, interconnects and packaging rather than improvements in a single manufacturing process.

For Applied Materials and UCLA, placing academic researchers alongside industry-scale manufacturing equipment could help close the gap between laboratory breakthroughs and technologies that can be transferred into commercial semiconductor production.