SiliconBeat

Novellus Systems, the San Jose maker of semiconductor-manufacturing equipment, entered into a sponsorship agreement with the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco that will put its name on the art center’s 750-seat theater, which will now be known as Novellus Theater, according to a press release put out by the company Monday.

During the past decade, Novellus has been a “regular donor to YBCA,” and has used the venue for product launches and investor meetings during the semiconductor equipment industry’s annual exhibition.

The center, plans for which were first initiated by the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency in 1980, opened in 1993. The theater (pictured) was designed by James Stewart Polshek.

We love the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, a wonderful oasis in San Francisco south of Market, situated near Moscone Center and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and find it admirable that a company such as Novellus maintains a relationship with it.

And we’ll assume that the company is also philanthropically involved with a certain downtown much closer to home.