The Zhitong Finance App learned that Applied Materials (AMAT.US) expects to double its revenue in the next few years, but it will not expand its recruitment significantly at the same time. The company is increasing the application of artificial intelligence (AI) tools to enable product development and quality control.
Gary Dixon, CEO of this semiconductor equipment manufacturer, said in an interview: “In the next few years, while the company doubles in size, we will not simultaneously double the number of employees.”
This statement was made on the eve of the unveiling of the company's EPIC Center (equipment, process innovation and commercialization base). With a total investment of 5 billion US dollars, the project aims to build a platform to help chip manufacturers join forces with researchers and equipment partners to speed up the pace of technology research and development.
As the largest supplier of semiconductor manufacturing equipment in the US, Applied Materials is benefiting from a surge in equipment demand driven by the AI boom. The company itself is also using AI to carry out innovation and product development, and explore ways to improve semiconductor yield — yield refers to the proportion of qualified chips produced from silicon wafers.
He mentioned, “Producing more qualified chips means huge benefits for customers.” Applied Materials is working with customers to implement AI solutions on production lines to increase the number of qualified single-wafer chips and daily wafer processing capacity.
Dixon did not disclose employee headcount forecasts for the next few years. As of late July, the company had approximately 38,900 employees.
The executive pointed out that Applied Materials is recruiting personnel in some fields where AI has brought about significant productivity increases, and in some cases, the efficiency increase can reach about 50%.
The EPIC center in Sunnyvale, California was built in collaboration with Applied Materials' customers, including TSM.US, Intel (INTC.US), Samsung Electronics (SSNLF.US), Micron Technology (MU.US), and SK Hynix (SKHY.US). The center covers an area of 600,000 square feet (about 56,000 square meters) and has nearly 4 acres of advanced cleanroom space for chip-related work. According to the company, the concrete used in the project was enough to fill 34 Olympic-standard swimming pools, and the steel used was enough to build two Eiffel Towers.
Dixon admits that there are still constraints to the expansion of the AI industry in the short term, including gaps in capital, materials, energy, and production capacity, which may slow down the pace of development; however, in the long run, this round of growth is transformative.
“Is there anything that will slow growth in the short term? “Of course,” he said, “but under any scenario, the industry's growth will be impressive.”