Semiconductor giant Micron is building the biggest chipset fab in the US despite declining smartphone demand and a China ban. The company is intending to bring advanced memory production to the US starting in 2026. A new chipset fabrication plant in Boise, Idaho worth $15 billion is being set up. Boise, Idaho-headquartered Micron celebrated its 45th anniversary this month by pouring the first cement at the new fabrication unit, says a report by CNBC. This unit is next to the company’s huge research and development facility.
Notably, three firms manufacture the majority of the world’s DRAM chips.
Micron is planning to set up the largest chipset project in the history of US, spending $100 billion over 20 years to build four 600,000 square foot fabs in upstate New York. According to Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, the company’s goal is to vastly increase the US share of DRAM production. The share of DRAM production in the US is currently just 2 per cent which happens at Micron’s fab in Manassas, Virginia, the report added.
It should be noted that NAND and DRAM memory chipsets are cheaper semiconductors as compared to central processing units (CPUs) made by Intel and AMD and graphics processing units (GPUs) that catapulted Nvidia’s growth.
“With Micron’s investments through CHIPS support in Boise, Idaho, as well as in Syracuse, New York, that 2 per cent over the course of nearly 20 years will be changing to about 15 per cent of the worldwide production coming from the US,” Mehrotra was quoted as saying by the CNBC report.
Meanwhile, the US-based chip making giant has chosen Tata Projects to establish this assembly and test facility in India and has announced a total investment of $2.75 billion. Out of this, Micron would invest up to $825 million over the two phases of the project, and the rest of the investment has been pledged by the state and central governments.
This facility will cater to the assembly and test manufacturing needs of both DRAM and MAM products, serving the demand from domestic and international markets. The project is scheduled to commence Phase 1 operations by the end of 2024, with Phase 2 expected to begin by the end of the decade. Once operational, the Micron plant is estimated to create approximately 5,000 direct jobs and generate nearly 15,000 community jobs, as the official estimates.
