Embodied artificial intelligence is the next big inflection point in the AI evolution, and Applied Materials intends to be front and centre in developing it, said the semiconductor equipment manufacturer’s chief technology officer.
Omkaram Nalamasu said that since chips are already used to power robotics, the semiconductor industry already has a vested interest in this segment.
But he took the point a step further, and said companies should, in fact, start thinking about how embodied AI will eventually alter manufacturing, even in the semiconductor space.
He noted that in a “lights-out” or dark factory, industrial facilities can run, “primarily with robots and minimal human involvement”.
The Xiaomi Smart Factory in Beijing is a well-known example: It has 11 fully automated production lines, managed entirely by the company’s HyperIMP intelligent manufacturing platform.
“It’s important to see how we can enable this and how we can collaborate with these companies,” noted Nalamasu.
Apart from his role at Applied Materials, he also oversees Applied Ventures, the company’s corporate venture arm, which has about US$100 million (S$128 million) to deploy every year and has invested about US$500 million in about 100 companies in 19 economies.
One area Applied Ventures has been focused on is backing startups in the embodied AI field. An example of this is Augmentus, a Singapore robotics startup that Applied Ventures backed in 2025, and is now a customer of.
