$AMAT just opened the largest joint chip research facility in the world, and all the major chipmakers are in it. The EPIC Center in Sunnyvale, California covers about 600,000 square feet, with nearly four acres of cleanroom space. Spending is expected to reach about $5 billion as customer projects get going. $TSM, $INTC, $MU, Samsung and SK hynix are all founding partners. $AVGO, Advantest, SCREEN, Kioxia and Besi are joining as partners, and Stanford and UC Berkeley will take part too. The idea is to put chipmakers, equipment makers and researchers in one building so new materials and processes can be developed side by side. TSMC's CEO says it will help the company get next generation equipment early and strengthen its advanced packaging research. To be fair, $5 billion is a big bill, and it will take years before this shows up in Applied's revenue but here's why it matters. First, Applied gets an early look at the problems its customers are trying to solve in logic, memory and packaging. Second, its customers can get to volume production faster and third, it makes Applied part of the roadmap, not just a seller of machines. As AI chips get harder to make, the companies building the tools become MORE important.