Applied Materials strengthens manufacturing capacity with new facility in Singapore

The new facility, already operating at volume production, is focused on serving chipmakers that are expanding production to meet increasing AI-driven demand.

Applied Materials has expanded its manufacturing operations in Singapore to support the global build-out of AI infrastructure. The new US$500 million Tampines Campus more than doubles Applied Materials’ advanced cleanroom capacity in Singapore and will also enhance the company’s R&D capabilities.

According to Gary Dickerson, President and CEO of Applied Materials, the expanded manufacturing operations in Singapore will strengthen the company’s ability to deliver semiconductor manufacturing equipment that chipmakers need to bring next-generation chips to market faster.

“There is no industry like the semiconductor industry. The pace of innovation is incredible. And then from an AI standpoint, this is the biggest inflection of our lifetimes. And everybody can see tremendous increase in compute demand for AI. And in Applied Materials this year, our semiconductor equipment business is growing over 30%. And the key technologies that enable AI material innovation come from Applied Materials,” said Dickerson during a media briefing at the launch of the new campus.

Dickerson added that Applied Materials is delivering “many miracles” that are enabling the future of AI computing.

“I am a huge believer. We're using AI inside Applied Materials for innovation, product development, operation supply chain. We're using it in our field organizations, really across the entire company. And this is an incredibly transformational technology. And we're really just in the early innings of this inflection,” he added.

With Applied Materials having a Singapore 2030 plan to strengthen its capabilities in the country, the new campus features an expansive manufacturing cleanroom and production capacity along with R&D facilities to support global and regional customers. Applied Materials already employs 4,000 employees in the region and is expecting to add an additional 1,000 new local jobs over the next few years to support industry growth and technology commercialization.

With Singapore being a hub for Applied Materials’ operations since 1991, KC Ong, Group Vice President of Worldwide Manufacturing at Applied Materials shared that the expansion is a testament to the world-class semiconductor ecosystem, infrastructure and talent this country has built.

“Our new AI-enabled, automation-ready facility represents the next era of advanced manufacturing optimized for speed, precision and quality,” he said.

During a media briefing session, Ong shared that with AI driving a huge shift in how complex chips need to be, its crucial to not only build them at speed but also have the equipment needed to produce the chips, which is why Applied Materials had to think and operate differently in the ecosystem today.

This includes bringing research, supply chains, logistics and manufacturing closer to ecosystem partners through the new facility, which is key for the industry. He added that Applied Materials will also not just grow but be committed to lead from Singapore in the industry.

“The broader operations around manufacturing and supply chain are not just capacity, but also capabilities. It's not just the regionalization, but also the resiliency of that supply chain. And more importantly, we exist to make sure our customers can be well supported. And you don't get to do all those great things without great people. And the key focus of that is to ensure that we continue to develop the workforce we have to make sure there is going to be good jobs for all of us,” said Brian Tan, Regional President (South East Asia) and Corporate Vice President (Applied Global Services), Applied Materials.

Building local talent

Applied Materials and the National University of Singapore (NUS) is advancing on two fronts to apply AI across the semiconductor sector. The University, through the Applied Materials-NUS Advanced Materials Corporate Lab. The lab will focus on research efforts that harness AI to accelerate semiconductor process development, including focusing on how to shorten one of the most expensive bottlenecks in chipmaking.

By training AI on data generated from the Corporate Lab’s processing equipment, the partners aim to build a system that can predict the most promising experiments to perform, speeding the path from the laboratory to the production line and reducing costly trial-and-error cycles.

Applied has also partnered with the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), announcing two initiatives to strengthen Singapore's semiconductor talent pipeline. The initiatives include the establishment of The Applied Materials Professorship, which will be the university's first industry-based Professorship, and The Applied Materials Scholarship. Both initiatives are established in partnership with Applied Materials, with support from a $3 million endowed gift.

Globally, over the past several years, Applied Materials has nearly doubled its global manufacturing capacity, including the new Tampines Campus, the company has also invested more than US$400 million in its US equipment manufacturing infrastructure over the past five years. Additionally, Applied’s new US$5 billion EPIC Center in Silicon Valley, set to become operational this year, represents the largest-ever U.S. investment in advanced semiconductor equipment R&D.