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Vice President Kamala Harris appeared in Sunnyvale on Monday to laud a Silicon Valley semiconductor toolmaking company for pumping $4 billion into a research facility in the region, an investment that would create the largest such enterprise in the world.
The facility, which will be called the Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization (EPIC) Center, is projected to open in 2026 and create up to 2,000 engineering jobs, according to Applied Materials, the world’s largest manufacturer of the tools used to make semiconductor chips. The facility, to be built in Sunnyvale, is expected to be the size of three football fields.
Applied Materials will invest in the facility over the next seven years and expects to apply for money from the federal subsidies in the CHIPS Act, a $52 billion package of subsidies that President Biden signed last year in part to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign chipmakers. That legislation included $13 billion dedicated to research and development.
Harris said Applied Materials decided to invest in the research facility because of those incentives.
Demands in the near future for better technology, Harris said, will “require a new generation of semiconductors. Semiconductors that are more compact, more efficient, more powerful and more important.”
The new facility “will potentially be a hub for collaboration” where “the brightest minds will gather to share data and expertise,” she said.
Administration officials say more than 300 companies have expressed interest in applying for the CHIPS Act funds, representing potential projects in 37 states and all parts of the semiconductor industry. Harris said the administration’s technology focus has spurred $140 billion of private investments in the semiconductor industry this year. Plans for new manufacturing facilities have broken ground over the past couple of years in Idaho, Arizona, Ohio and California, she said.
Harris, who has traveled to meet with semiconductor executives in Japan and Singapore in an effort to lure investment in U.S. manufacturing, met privately Monday with nearly two dozen tech executives, including Gary Dickerson, CEO of Applied Materials, Mark Liu, chairman of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Naga Chandrasekaran, senior vice president of Micron Technology.
Dickerson said it was important to create the research center in Sunnyvale, “in the heart of Silicon Valley.”
“By investing in manufacturing capacity, we will create a more resilient supply chain,” Dickerson said.
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