Key Highlights

● Applied unveiled its EPIC Center on 12 October 2026, described as a $5 billion investment.

● The 600,000-square-foot Facility has nearly four acres of advanced cleanroom space.

● Targets for 2030 include about 54% non-GAAP gross Margin and 40% operating margin.

● Fiscal third-quarter Revenue was $9.1 billion, with Earnings Per Share of $3.17.

A $5 billion R&D bet

Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT), the semiconductor equipment maker, unveiled its EPIC Center on 12 October 2026 at its Sunnyvale, California campus. The company describes the Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization facility as a $5 billion capital investment, with a footnote saying spending is expected to build up to roughly that level over time as customer projects begin. The 600,000-square-foot building has nearly four acres of advanced cleanroom space.

EPIC is designed to run materials research, equipment development and pilot production in parallel rather than in sequence. Founding partners are TSMC (NYSE:TSM), Intel (NASDAQ:INTC), SK hynix, Micron (NASDAQ:MU) and Samsung Electronics, with Broadcom (NASDAQ:AVGO), Advantest, SCREEN, KIOXIA and Besi as innovation partners. Chief executive Gary Dickerson said the industry must rethink how it collaborates to win the race for AI leadership. Applied expects chipmakers to gain earlier access to next-generation materials and a faster route to Volume production. Intel chief executive Lip-Bu Tan said he sees a path to more than a trillion transistors in a package by 2030.

Management's long-range targets

On 13 October, at its SEMICON West investor breakfast, Applied published a company outlook. It expects leading-edge foundry-logic, DRAM and advanced packaging to drive about 75% of wafer fab equipment growth between 2025 and 2030, and targets a gain of more than two percentage points of Market Share over that period.

Applied also targets a non-GAAP gross margin of about 54% and a non-GAAP Operating Margin of about 40% by 2030, and plans to distribute 80% to 100% of free Cash Flow to shareholders over time. It expects service revenue to grow more than 20% in calendar 2026 and exceed $12 billion by 2030, and says its eBeam portfolio should generate about $2 billion of revenue in calendar 2026.

The company also plans to more than double its research laboratory and Manufacturing capacity from current levels by 2030, having recently expanded manufacturing in Austin, Singapore and Treviso. The 2030 figures are targets and projections.

Latest reported results

The most recent quarterly figures are for the fiscal third quarter, ended 26 July 2026. Revenue was $9.1 billion, Net Income $2.5 billion and earnings per share $3.17. The previous quarter, ended 26 April, showed revenue of $7.9 billion, net income of $2.8 billion and earnings per share of $3.51, and the first quarter, ended 25 January, showed revenue of $7.0 billion.

Revenue therefore rose in each of the three quarters, while net income was highest in the second.

Service growth and margins against Applied's 2030 targets

Applied Materials has been a constituent of the S&P 500 since 16 March 1995.

Service revenue is expected to grow more than 20% in calendar 2026 and exceed $12 billion by 2030. The 54% gross margin target is the other figure that later reports will be set against.