- New lab facility at the Lam Tualatin R&D center being built to expand Lam’s global lab network with over 50% more clean room space located close to key engineering teams and customers.
- The facility is intended to support faster pathfinding and process development as AI chip manufacturing grows more complex.
- Lam’s multibillion-dollar lab investments around the world create an integrated 24/7 R&D network to speed breakthroughs for customers from early discovery to fab deployment.
Driving the news: Lam Research broke ground yesterday on a new Oregon lab in Tualatin that expands its R&D investments in the Silicon Forest aimed at boosting velocity for customers in the AI chip manufacturing race.
- The new state-of-the-art facility will expand Lam's Tualatin clean room lab space capacity by more than 50% upon completion. With an expected opening in 2028, the 120,000-square-foot lab will be one of Lam’s most advanced R&D facilities in the world.
The new lab facility that enables close collaboration with customers to increase the velocity of innovation.
Why it matters: AI is driving unprecedented demand for new chip architectures that are highly complex, placing pressure on chip makers at every step of semiconductor development:
- New materials must be screened faster.
- Process technologies need to be validated earlier.
- New chip designs must move from prototype to production-ready performance with fewer delays.
The new lab will be part of Lam’s growing global network that already enables Lam engineers to work side-by-side with customers. Together, they can increase experimentation and develop solutions for atomic-scale process development breakthroughs needed for the creation of advanced AI chips.
Left to right: Lam EVP and COO Sesha Varadarajan, Lam CEO Tim Archer, and U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley view a model of the Oregon lab expansion at the groundbreaking ceremony.
Lam Leadership in the Silicon Forest
The expansion is Lam's biggest investment in Oregon to date, building on a 30-year legacy of making the region a leader in U.S. semiconductor R&D.
- According to a third-party assessment,1 over the three-year construction period, the expansion project is expected to create approximately 900 jobs and $500 million in economic output.2
- Once completed, the expansion is expected to represent the company’s biggest investment in Oregon in to date, including the creation of more than 400 new Lam jobs and boosting the number of jobs that Lam supports statewide to more than 11,000.1
- The completed expansion is projected to increase Lam’s annual economic contribution in Oregon to more than $1.8 billion.1
The big picture: Lam’s global lab network spans the United States, Asia, and Europe, with specialized facilities located close to customers and equipped to support more than one million experiments annually. Lam intends to invest more than $3 billion in the next five years to continue expanding this integrated R&D infrastructure around the world.
- Lam plans to make the new facility one of its most advanced labs in the world. The new Oregon lab will build on Lam's strengths as a leader in atomic-scale semiconductor manufacturing, adding specialized capabilities to support advanced deposition and etch process development, materials science, and hardware validation.
What they're saying:
“Delivering next-generation semiconductors at the speed of AI requires relentless innovation and a strategic focus on the technology breakthroughs that matter most to our customers," said Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Sesha Varadarajan. " Our new advanced Oregon lab is expected to deepen our specialized capabilities and add tens of thousands of square feet of valuable cleanroom space, enabling even closer collaboration with customers while strengthening the expertise and reach of our global lab network. This expansion reflects our continuing commitment to advancing the Silicon Forest as a leader in U.S. semiconductor innovation.”
"This state-of-the-art expansion builds on more than 30 years of Lam's innovation leadership in the Silicon Forest," said Oregon Governor Tina Kotek. "This is a powerful investment towards Oregon's economic future that will create more high-quality jobs, strengthen the state’s world-class research and development ecosystem, and help ensure Oregon and the United States continue to lead in semiconductor innovation for decades to come."
"Intel has enjoyed close collaboration with Lam in Oregon and around the world for decades,” said Naga Chandrasekaran, executive vice president and chief technology and operations officer of Intel Foundry. “With this new lab facility, we look forward to working even more closely together to accelerate process development at chip scale, quickly evaluate new technologies, and deliver the breakthroughs required for the next generation of AI-driven computing."
1 Source: Results generated by IMPLAN®, 2026 Model Year, using inputs provided by Lam and IMPLAN Group LLC, IMPLAN System data and software.
2 $500 million projected impact from construction project; limited to three-year construction period only. Result generated by IMPLAN.1
Related Information
- Lam Research Breaks Ground on New Oregon Lab to Accelerate AI Era Semiconductor Research & Development Locally, Globally (Press Release)
- KGW News story on Lam Oregon Lab Expansion (YouTube)
- How Lam's Global Lab Network Compresses the Path From Discovery to Fab Deployment
- Lam Is Committed to Growing the Silicon Forest
Caution Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Statements made in this article that are not of historical fact are forward-looking statements and are subject to the safe harbor provisions created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. In some cases, forward-looking statements can be identified by words such as "accelerate," "advance," "can," "commit," "continue," "drive," "expect," "expand," "focus," "grow," "look forward," "long-term," "ongoing," "opportunity," "plan," "project," "require," "strategy," "will," or variations of these words or other similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to: our planned investment in our global lab network to accelerate breakthroughs; the development timeline and expected benefits of the new Oregon lab, including increasing cleanroom lab space and innovation capabilities, accelerating development cycles, and the third-party assessment projections; and industry trends related to AI-driven demand. These statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve a number of risks, uncertainties, and other factors that could cause our actual results or outcomes, or the timing of our results or outcomes, to differ materially from those expressed or implied in this article. Such risks, uncertainties, and other factors include: our ability to successfully execute the planned expansion of our global lab network or the development of the new Oregon lab; our ability to achieve the anticipated benefits of our investments in R&D infrastructure, including the new Oregon lab; the development timing and anticipated benefits of the new Oregon lab may differ from our expectations; business, economic, political and/or regulatory conditions in the consumer electronics industry, including wafer fabrication equipment spending, the semiconductor industry and the overall economy may deteriorate or change; the actions, performance, or investment levels of our customers and competitors may be inconsistent with our expectations; customer and product mix, including across market segments and geographical regions, may change; we may be unable to effectively manage and implement pricing actions, realize the value of our products and technology, successfully commercialize new products and technologies, or execute on perceived opportunities; we may be unable to achieve anticipated operational, manufacturing, supply chain, procurement, and scale efficiencies; customer technology transitions, capacity expansions, and fab construction projects may have different timing or be less successful than we expect; we may be unable to manage operating expenses effectively while continuing to invest in R&D, product innovation, customer support, and future growth opportunities; trade regulations, export controls, tariffs, trade disputes, and other geopolitical developments may inhibit our ability to sell our products; supply chain cost increases, tariffs, and other inflationary pressures have impacted and may continue to impact our profitability; supply chain disruptions or manufacturing capacity constraints may limit our ability to manufacture and sell our products; natural and human-caused disasters, disease outbreaks, war, terrorism, political or governmental unrest or instability, or other events beyond our control may impact our operations and revenue in affected areas; as well as the other risks and uncertainties that are described in the documents filed or furnished by us with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including specifically the Risk Factors described in our most recently filed periodic reports on Form 10-K and Form 10-Q and subsequent filings. You should evaluate all forward-looking statements made in this article in the context of these risks, uncertainties, and other factors. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof and are based on our current beliefs, expectations, and assumptions about future events. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to update the information or statements made in this article.