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pplied Materials has acquired a 152,300-square-foot property in Sunnyvale as part of its ongoing real estate buying spree. The semiconductor equipment manufacturer paid $100 million for the big-box store at 1077 East Arques Avenue, which was previously owned by the family of Robert Wise, director of "The Sound of Music". The deal works out to $657 per square foot or $7.35 million an acre.

    This acquisition is part of a larger effort by Applied Materials, which has spent over $396 million since 2018 on properties along a four-mile stretch in east Sunnyvale and north Santa Clara. The company now owns or leases over 2 million square feet across more than two dozen buildings.

    Applied plans to assemble its holdings into a new Equipment and Process Innovation and Commercialization Center. This purchase is the latest by Applied Materials since Fry's Electronics shut down in early 2021, shuttering 31 stores in nine states due to online competition.

    The former Fry's store in Sunnyvale joins other recent purchases of former Fry's locations, including one in Fremont that will be converted into a manufacturing and tech research site. In February, Super Micro Computer paid $80 million for the former headquarters of Fry's Electronics in North San Jose, which is set to become a 1.9 million-square-foot office campus.