KIOXIA reportedly joining Applied Materials’ $5B EPIC Center for AI memory

Applied Materials’ EPIC Center just added another big name to its roster. KIOXIA, one of the world’s leading NAND flash memory manufacturers, is joining the $5 billion facility designed to accelerate next-generation AI memory technologies from lab concept to factory floor. The move plugs a notable gap in the EPIC Center’s partner lineup, which already includes Samsung Electronics, SK hynix, Micron, and TSMC. Adding KIOXIA brings dedicated NAND flash expertise to a collaborative hub that had been more heavily weighted toward DRAM and logic chip development. What the EPIC Center actually does EPIC stands for Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization. Think of it as a semiconductor sandbox where the companies that make chips and the companies that make the machines to build those chips can experiment together under one roof, rather than shipping prototypes back and forth across oceans for months. Applied Materials committed $5 billion to the project, making it the largest investment in advanced semiconductor equipment research and development in the US. The facility sits in Silicon Valley and spans over 180,000 square feet of cleanroom space. The center was initially anno...