Applied Materials to invest $400 million over four years to establish a new centre in India

Following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with Gary E. Dickerson, President and CEO of Applied Materials, during his ongoing visit to the US, the leader in materials engineering solutions has announced its intention to build a collaborative engineering centre in Bengaluru with an investment of $400 million spanning over four years. In its first five years of operation, the centre is expected to support more than $2 billion of planned investments and create at least 500 new advanced engineering jobs along with potentially another 2,500 jobs in the manufacturing ecosystem.

This engineering centre will be focused on development and commercialisation of technologies for semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

During his meeting with Applied Materials, PM Modi invited the company to contribute towards strengthening the semiconductor ecosystem in India and developing technology and advanced packaging capabilities in India.

“Applied is excited to build upon our 20 years of success in India by creating a facility where the country’s top engineers, suppliers and researchers can work side-by-side to develop new innovations,” said Prabu Raja, President of the semiconductor products group at Applied Materials. “We envision Applied’s strong base of engineering talent collaborating more deeply with domestic and global companies operating in India to strengthen the foundational equipment supply chain serving the global semiconductor manufacturing industry.”

Applied already has a footprint in India with operations across six sites in India and a large organization of product development, R&D, IT and operations capabilities in the country.

This new centre is expected to be located near Applied’s existing campus in Bengaluru. The collaborative engineering centre is part of the company’s previously announced plans to expand its global innovation infrastructure. 

“Applied Materials the leading Wafer Foundry Equipment (WFE) manufacturer globally already has the biggest R&D centre in India helping design and develop leading edge WFEs. So, a player like Applied Materials brings the cutting-edge manufacturing of their high-end machines which are used by high end fabs such as TSMC and Samsung will set a strong precedent and case study for India as one of the potential and preferred destination to build an alternative semi ecosystem,” says Neil Shah, Vice President Research at Counterpoint.  

The new centre will be designed to bring together Applied engineers, leading global and domestic suppliers, and top research and academic institutions, enabling them to collaborate in one location with a common goal of accelerating development of semiconductor equipment sub-systems and components. The center will also aim to serve as a catalyst for the training and development of future semiconductor industry talent, as well as open up new opportunities for India to play an expanded role in the global chip ecosystem.

The company also works closely with multiple leading academic institutions including the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru and the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, where Applied has established a Materials Development Centre focused on developing next-generation chemistry and materials for the semiconductor industry.