Kioxia joins Applied Materials' EPIC Center as partner for next-gen memory R&D

Japanese NAND flash maker Kioxia is joining Applied Materials' advanced research and development facility, the EPIC Center, located in Silicon Valley, as a partner.

According to Applied Materials, Kioxia will collaborate with the company at the EPIC Center, focusing on key challenges in next-generation memory chip innovation.

Applied Materials' new EPIC Center is the largest advanced semiconductor equipment R&D facility ever built in the United States, valued at approximately $5 billion. The facility is on track to complete operational preparations by year-end, with R&D aimed at dramatically accelerating the commercialization of breakthrough technologies set to begin next year.

Applied Materials and Kioxia plan to jointly research advanced memory cell and structure formation, multi-chip stacking architectures, and new materials engineering approaches to increase the memory density and performance required in the AI era.

Gary Dickerson, president and CEO of Applied Materials, said AI infrastructure demands memory solutions that deliver dramatically higher density, greater bandwidth and improved energy efficiency. "At the EPIC Center, we are building a powerful partnership that combines Kioxia's deep memory technology expertise with Applied Materials' materials engineering innovation to redefine what is possible in next-generation memory," he said.

Hiroo Ota, president and CEO of Kioxia, said the collaboration with Applied Materials reflects both companies' shared commitment to driving memory innovation. "We are excited to work together at the EPIC Center to achieve breakthroughs in advanced technology," he said.

Through the EPIC Center partnership, the two companies aim to achieve chip integration that increases memory density and performance within constrained form factors.

In the area of advanced packaging for stacked memory, they will work together to improve the integration density and interconnect performance of complex multi-die memory solutions. They also plan to pursue materials engineering innovations that enable next-generation memory structures while securing large-scale mass production capability.