Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ:LRCX) said Thursday it plans to invest more than $3 billion over the next five years to expand its global research and development lab network, increasing experiment capacity by more than 50% as chipmakers race to keep pace with AI-driven semiconductor innovation.

Faster R&D for AI Era Chips

The company said the expansion will support a network of specialized labs across the U.S., Asia, and Europe that already handle more than one million experiments annually.

Lam said the investment is designed to compress the time it takes to move new chip technologies from early research to production, with some customer engagements already shortening process development by up to 2.5 times.

“In the AI era, the pace of innovation is relentless, requiring chips with new architectures, different materials, and complex features engineered with nanoscale precision,” CEO Tim Archer said, adding that faster R&D has become “a decisive advantage.”

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Lam’s Role in Chipmaking

Lam makes wafer-fabrication equipment used in processes such as etching and deposition, which are critical to manufacturing advanced logic and memory chips.

Its customers include major chipmakers such as Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU), which called Lam’s equipment central to advancing “memory and storage solutions that power the AI ecosystem.”

Part of a Broader Wave of AI Infrastructure Spending

The investment comes as major hyperscalers, including Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), and Meta Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ:META), have all raised their AI-related capital expenditure forecasts.

Data-center capital expenditure is on pace to rise from 1.4% of GDP in 2025 to 3.1% in 2027, a pace Apollo Global Management Chief Economist Torsten Slok says is building at close to twice the speed of the mid-2000s housing boom.

Lam plans to begin expanding the lab network this year.

Price Action: The shares climbed 3.34% on Thursday to $337.01 and fell 0.69% in early pre-market trading on Friday.

Benzinga edge rankings indicate Lam Research’s stock has a Momentum score in the 96th percentile and a Growth score in the 93rd percentile.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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