Lam Research Corp. held a groundbreaking ceremony on Aug. 26, 2026, at its world-class R&D center located in Tualatin, Oregon, to mark the beginning of New Oregon Lab construction, which, by the way, is part of an investment plan of over $3 billion in the next five years when it comes to its global lab network to speed up innovations for production of advanced AI chips.
Apparently, the New Oregon Lab construction which spans across 120,000-square-foot facility, located in the Silicon Forest and close to many key customers, has the potential to boost cleanroom lab space at the Lam Tualatin R&D center by over 50% when finished, thereby facilitating enhanced experimentation and faster development of solutions. Lam intends to make the new facility one of the most advanced labs in the world, boosting capacity and capabilities for collaborative innovation with customers and simplifying product development cycles throughout its global lab network.
Attendees at the groundbreaking event included Tim Archer, the Lam Research President and Chief Executive Officer along with Sesha Varadarajan, the Executive Visce President and Chief Operating Officer and also U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, Suzanne Bonamici, the U.S. Congresswoman of Oregon, Oregon Secretary of State Tobias Read as well as other senior leaders from Intel Corporation as well as Micron Technology and also other notable government, community and nonprofit leaders.
It is worth noting that delivering next-gen semiconductors at the pace of AI demands unrelenting innovation and a strategic emphasis on the technology innovations that are important to most of the customers.
According to 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. We thank the State of Oregon, Washington County, and the City of Tualatin for their long-standing partnership and look forward to continuing our work together to advance economic opportunities in a community we’ve been proud to be part of for more than 30 years.”
Expanding the Global Lab Network Power of Lam
It is worth noting that the new Oregon lab will capitalize on the established position of Lam as a pioneer when it comes to atomic-scale semiconductor manufacturing, offering specialized capabilities in order to promote advanced deposition and etch process design, materials science, and hardware verification. Similar to Lam’s presently operating labs, customers can collaborate tightly in the new facility with Lam engineers at each phase of product development, be it concept by means of deployment in their fabs. The lab will additionally become part of the integrated global network of specialized labs of Lam, collaborating to innovate round the clock, simultaneously, and at a large scale.
Leadership of Lam Continues in the Silicon Forest
Apparently, the new cutting-edge Oregon lab forms an element of a proposed multi-building development at the Tualatin campus of Lam, which is expected to begin operations in 2028. A third-party evaluation estimates that the expansion project will create about 900 jobs and $500 million in terms of economic output within the construction timeframe of 3 years.
When completed, the expansion is anticipated to be the largest Oregon investment of the company to date, with an estimated economic effect that involves generating over 400 new Lam jobs and increasing the total number of jobs that Lam generates throughout Oregon to more than 11,000. The finished expansion is also expected to boost the annual economic contribution to Oregon by Lam to over $1.8 billion.
According to the U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley of Oregon, “I support investing in Oregon’s economy and workers, and Lam Research’s Tualatin Expansion project does both. This expansion will provide hundreds of good-paying, high-tech jobs and further position Oregon’s Silicon Forest as a leader in semiconductor research, development, and manufacturing. The work that happens here will enable advances in all of the latest cutting-edge industries, including vital technologies like AI and robotics.”
Remarks the U.S. Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici of Oregon that “Innovation, research, and development fuel Oregon’s international semiconductor leadership. Congratulations to Lam Research on the groundbreaking of their new R&D building and thank you for investing in our region and the local workforce.”
Tina Kotek, the Oregon Governor says that “This state-of-the-art expansion builds on more than 30 years of Lam’s innovation leadership in the Silicon Forest. 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.”
Tobias Read, the Oregon Secretary of State opines that “Lam Research’s continued investment in Oregon is a testament to the strength of our state’s semiconductor ecosystem and the talented workforce that powers it. This groundbreaking represents more than a new facility. It represents hundreds of new jobs, accelerated innovation, and a long-term commitment to Oregon. I’m proud to celebrate this important milestone and Lam’s ongoing growth as a leader in the Silicon Forest.”
According to the executive vice president and chief technology and operations officer of Intel Foundry, Naga Chandrasekaran, “Intel has enjoyed close collaboration with Lam in Oregon and around the world for decades. 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.”
Manish Bhatia, who is the executive vice president of Global Operations with Micron Technology says that “AI marks a historic inflection point for the semiconductor industry, driving exceptional demand for memory and increasing the need for greater speed, scale and manufacturing capacity. We congratulate Lam Research on today’s groundbreaking and look forward to deepening our longstanding collaboration to equip Micron for significant manufacturing expansion to keep pace with the AI era.”