---
title: "Intel can't skip Applied Materials' $5 billion chip R&D lab, where rival TSMC is a founding partner"
description: "Applied Materials' $5 billion EPIC Center opens in Sunnyvale today with TSMC, Intel, Samsung and every major memory maker inside. Intel's foundry, $2.1 billion underwater last quarter, cannot skip the room its bigger rival joined first, and the shared floor pays only while rivals trust Applied's walls more than each other."
publisher: "The Inference"
section: "Silicon"
published: 2026-10-12T13:23:53.955Z
modified: 2026-10-12T13:23:53.955Z
canonical: https://theinference.org/article/intel-can-t-skip-applied-materials-5-billion-chip-r-d-lab-where-rival-tsmc-is-a-founding-partner
language: en
keywords: "Applied Materials, Intel, TSMC, Semiconductors, Foundries"
---

# Intel can't skip Applied Materials' $5 billion chip R&D lab, where rival TSMC is a founding partner

> Applied Materials' $5 billion EPIC Center opens in Sunnyvale today with TSMC, Intel, Samsung and every major memory maker inside. Intel's foundry, $2.1 billion underwater last quarter, cannot skip the room its bigger rival joined first, and the shared floor pays only while rivals trust Applied's walls more than each other.

[Applied Materials](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/applied-materials) makes the machines that deposit, etch and polish silicon, not chips. Today in Sunnyvale it opens the room where the next machines get invented: the EPIC Center, 600,000 square feet and roughly $5 billion, [the largest single investment in advanced semiconductor equipment R&D on US soil](https://startupfortune.com/applied-materials-opens-a-5-billion-lab-every-chipmaker-will-need/) [1]. The May 2023 pledge was up to $4 billion; the building ran past it [1][3]. Applied says the center anchors more than $25 billion of its own R&D over its first decade, built to cut the five-to-seven-year walk from lab demo to fab-ready machine [1].

## The guest list is the product

[TSMC](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/tsmc) signed as a founding partner in May, Samsung in February, [Micron](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/micron) and [SK hynix](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/sk-hynix) in March. [Kioxia's arrival on September 29](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/all-four-major-memory-makers-join-applied-materials-epic-center-kioxia-completes-coalition/ar-AA2dh9V7) put all four memory makers under one roof, alongside [Broadcom](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/broadcom), Besi, Advantest and five universities including Stanford and UCLA [1][4].

## Intel takes a seat at its rival's table

[Intel](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/intel) [widened its role on October 6](https://shattered.io/intel-tsmc-applied-materials-epic-center-5b-2026/), spanning transistors, interconnects and Foveros 3D stacking, with no dollar figure attached; it reads as scope, not spending [2][3]. Skipping was not an option. Intel Foundry [lost $2.1 billion on $5.8 billion of revenue last quarter](https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/08/11/intels-foundry-grew-31-last-quarter-and-lost-21-bi/), outside customers supplied just $293 million of it, and TSMC is spending $60 to $64 billion on capex this year against Intel's plan just above $20 billion [2][7][8]. For the smaller spender, the shared equipment ecosystem is the price of staying on the roadmap at all [2].

## Applied collects on every lane

Applied does not need a winner. Its fiscal third quarter was [the biggest in company history, $9.12 billion](https://cryptobriefing.com/applied-materials-record-revenue-ai-demand/), up 25 percent, with the tool-selling Semiconductor Systems unit at a record $7.04 billion [5][6]. It guided advanced packaging revenue up more than 70 percent this calendar year and its equipment business up more than 30 percent, and has since raised the outlook; Dickerson calls demand visibility into 2030 "unprecedented" [1][6].

*Chart: **Applied's revenue fell year on year in late 2025; two quarters later it set a record** Line chart of Applied Materials quarterly revenue from Q1 2024 to Q2 2026 in billions of dollars, dipping year on year in late 2025 then rising to a record 9.115*

*Quarterly revenue, US$ billions; labels are calendar quarters, so Q2 '26 is Applied's fiscal Q3 2026, ended July 26, 2026. Source: Applied Materials SEC filings. [5]*

The building adds what no patent can. Every tenant's hardest unsolved problem now gets worked inside Applied's walls, on Applied's tools, months before any public roadmap admits it exists [1].

## The walls are the wager

The model holds while tenants trust Applied's walls more than they trust each other, and the first dispute over what was invented in whose corner decides it [1]. The nearer risk needs no dispute: Applied trades as an AI derivative, [down 22 percent in the month to mid-September](https://247wallst.com/investing/2026/09/14/chip-equipment-stocks-slide-as-ai-pacing-call-reaches-fab-spending-applied-materials-and-lam-research-fall-6-asml-sinks-5/) and down 6 percent in a day when AI lab chiefs called for slowing model progress, record quarter and raised guidance notwithstanding [9].

## What decides it

The investor breakfast tomorrow starts the clock [9]. Watch for tenancy terms that have never been disclosed, and for [Intel's 2027 foundry break-even](https://theinference.org/article/intel-14a-courts-eight-giants-on-paper-while-tsmc-collects-cash), which needs a few billion dollars of outside revenue a year against roughly $1.2 billion today [7]. Neutral ground is a fine business until someone's IP walks across the floor.

## Takeaway

Applied Materials' $5 billion EPIC Center puts Intel, TSMC and every major memory maker in one R&D building, a shared-floor model that pays only while rivals trust Applied's neutrality more than each other.

## Sources

1. [Startup Fortune, "Applied Materials opens a $5 billion lab every chipmaker will need", 12 October 2026](https://startupfortune.com/applied-materials-opens-a-5-billion-lab-every-chipmaker-will-need/)
2. [shattered.io, "Intel Joins TSMC at Applied Materials' $5B Chip Lab", 8 October 2026](https://shattered.io/intel-tsmc-applied-materials-epic-center-5b-2026/)
3. [Unite.AI, "Applied Materials and Intel Partner on AI Chipmaking at EPIC Center", 6 October 2026](https://www.unite.ai/applied-materials-and-intel-partner-on-ai-chipmaking-at-epic-center/)
4. [Tech Times via MSN, "All four major memory makers join Applied Materials' EPIC Center: Kioxia completes coalition", 30 September 2026](https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/all-four-major-memory-makers-join-applied-materials-epic-center-kioxia-completes-coalition/ar-AA2dh9V7)
5. [Applied Materials, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 12 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0000006951)
6. [Crypto Briefing, "Applied Materials posts record $9.12 billion quarter as AI chip demand surges", 8 October 2026](https://cryptobriefing.com/applied-materials-record-revenue-ai-demand/)
7. [The Motley Fool, "Intel's Foundry Grew 31% Last Quarter and Lost $2.1 Billion Doing It", 11 August 2026](https://www.fool.com/investing/2026/08/11/intels-foundry-grew-31-last-quarter-and-lost-21-bi/)
8. [Tech Times, "TSMC Posts Record Quarter as AI Chip Demand Pushes Full-Year Growth Outlook Past 40%", 16 July 2026](https://www.techtimes.com/articles/320696/20260716/tsmc-posts-record-quarter-ai-chip-demand-pushes-full-year-growth-outlook-past-40.htm)
9. [24/7 Wall St, "Chip Equipment Stocks Slide as AI Pacing Call Reaches Fab Spending", 14 September 2026](https://247wallst.com/investing/2026/09/14/chip-equipment-stocks-slide-as-ai-pacing-call-reaches-fab-spending-applied-materials-and-lam-research-fall-6-asml-sinks-5/)


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Intel can't skip Applied Materials' $5 billion chip R&D lab, where rival TSMC is a founding partner — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/intel-can-t-skip-applied-materials-5-billion-chip-r-d-lab-where-rival-tsmc-is-a-founding-partner