Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMAT) and Intel Corporation (NASDAQ: INTC) announced a collaboration to develop next-generation chipmaking technologies, with joint work planned across Applied Materials' EPIC Center in Silicon Valley and Intel's research campus in Hillsboro, Oregon.

The two companies said they will focus on advances in transistors, interconnects, and advanced packaging technologies aimed at AI computing applications. The collaboration covers both front-end and back-end-of-line semiconductor development, including interconnect scaling and Intel's Foveros-based 3D stacking packaging technology.

Applied Materials' EPIC (Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization) Center, located in Silicon Valley, is scheduled to be operationally ready in 2026. The facility is designed to reduce the time required to move technologies from early-stage research to high-volume manufacturing.

"Applied and Intel share a decades-long history of deep collaboration focused on pushing the boundaries of materials engineering to advance the semiconductor roadmap," said Gary Dickerson, President and CEO of Applied Materials.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan said the companies plan to expand their work at the EPIC Center to "accelerate the path from the lab to high-volume manufacturing in the United States."

Intel is described as a founding partner of the EPIC Center. The collaboration is intended to shorten development cycles for advanced logic nodes targeting AI workloads, as well as packaging technologies supporting higher interconnect density, improved power delivery, and thermal performance for high-performance computing platforms.