Applied Materials strives to cooperate with chipmakers to shorten equipment lead time

Applied Materials Korea Country President Park Gwang-sun said Monday that the company is working closely with Korean chipmakers to shorten equipment lead times and support their global expansion, citing SK hynix's new Indiana fab and Samsung's Taylor fab. Park emphasized Korea's growing strategic importance in the global AI ecosystem and the need to forecast long-term demand to supply equipment accordingly.

Applied Materials Korea Country President Park Gwang-sun said Monday that the semiconductor engineering solutions company is working to help Korean chipmakers optimize performance and maximize output as they expand globally. During a press conference in Seoul, Park said Korea’s strategic importance in the global artificial intelligence AI ecosystem has been reassessed in the past year, adding that one of the company’s most important roles is to work closely with customers to forecast long-term demand and supply equipment accordingly. “We are working closely with our customers to optimize design and maximize output so that our equipment can produce high-quality devices,” Park said. “Our customers have recently been expanding their fabs globally. SK hynix announced its Indiana fab last week, while Samsung has already begun operations at its Taylor fab. As they expand their global footprint, Applied Materials Korea is working to ensure seamless technical and workforce support.” The comments came as demand for memory chips continues to far outpace supply, prompting chipmakers t