Construction is underway on a 120,000-square-foot lab at Lam Research’s Tualatin campus, adding more than half again as much cleanroom space at the Oregon site when it opens in 2028. The facility is the first to emerge from a five-year expansion of Lam’s worldwide network of research labs.
Lam has earmarked more than $3B for that network, and the new building targets faster development of deposition and etch gear for advanced AI chips, with client teams set to co-develop and validate tools alongside Lam staff in facilities that keep innovation running around the clock.
Executives said the expansion strengthens Lam’s hand in atomic-scale manufacturing, materials science and hardware validation. Chief operating officer Sesha Varadarajan said the pace of AI demands relentless innovation and closer customer collaboration, adding tens of thousands of square feet of cleanroom capacity in the Silicon Forest, where Lam has operated for more than 30 years.
Oregon senator Jeff Merkley, congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici, secretary of state Tobias Read and senior leaders from Intel and Micron joined the groundbreaking. Independent projections put the three-year build’s impact at roughly 900 local jobs and $500M in economic output.
