US memory chipmaker Micron Technology Inc yesterday said it had fully restored the operation of a fabrication factory in Taoyuan from a “minor facility event” and it expects no material impact on its business.
The clarification came after media outlets raised concern over potential production losses.
“Regarding recent rumors about Micron’s fabrication facility in Taoyuan, Taiwan, Micron hereby clarifies that there was no nitrogen leaking incident nor evacuation of personnel,” Micron said in a statement..
The chipmaker said there was “indeed a minor facility event, but operations are recovering speedily.”
The Taoyuan fab is also one of its global production sites for DRAM chips, the company said.
Micron has a large manufacturing network, allowing the company to respond quickly, mitigate the effects of incidents at any specific site and assure full operation of the business as a whole, the statement said.
However, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) yesterday said that the incident could have an effect on upcoming shipments of Apple Inc’s new iPhone series, as Micron’s Taoyuan fab produces low-power DDR4 DRAM used in the devices.
The Taipei-based researcher said that production at Fab-2, one of Micron’s manufacturing plants in Taoyuan, was disrupted on Saturday last week due to a malfunction in the facility’s nitrogen gas dispensing system.
The incident has contaminated wafers during manufacturing and equipment, TrendForce said in a report.
It is expected that about 60,000 wafers from a total 125,000 this month have been delayed, given that the cleaning and restoration of production capacity are time-consuming, TrendForce said.
The production loss would cut 5.5 percent from global DRAM monthly output, totaling 1.14 million wafers this month, aggravating the already tight supply of DRAM chips, TrendForce said.
Micron’s Taoyuan Fab-2 primarily produces DRAM chips used in PCs, servers and mobile phones, TrendForce said.
The reduction in DRAM supply might squeeze a persistent supply crunch and drive chip prices up further, it said.
“Some [DRAM] suppliers are already hinting that price hikes are on the horizon,” TrendForce said in the report.
BIG BUCKS: Chairman Wei is expected to receive NT$34.12 million on a proposed NT$5 cash dividend plan, while the National Development Fund would get NT$8.27 billion Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday announced that its board of directors approved US$15.25 billion in capital appropriations for long-term expansion to meet growing demand. The funds are to be used for installing advanced technology and packaging capacity, expanding mature and specialty technology, and constructing fabs with facility systems, TSMC said in a statement. The board also approved a proposal to distribute a NT$5 cash dividend per share, based on first-quarter earnings per share of NT$13.94, it said. That surpasses the NT$4.50 dividend for the fourth quarter of last year. TSMC has said that while it is eager
‘IMMENSE SWAY’: The top 50 companies, based on market cap, shape everything from technology to consumer trends, advisory firm Visual Capitalist said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) was ranked the 10th-most valuable company globally this year, market information advisory firm Visual Capitalist said. TSMC sat on a market cap of about US$915 billion as of Monday last week, making it the 10th-most valuable company in the world and No. 1 in Asia, the publisher said in its “50 Most Valuable Companies in the World” list. Visual Capitalist described TSMC as the world’s largest dedicated semiconductor foundry operator that rolls out chips for major tech names such as US consumer electronics brand Apple Inc, and artificial intelligence (AI) chip designers Nvidia Corp and Advanced
Saudi Arabian Oil Co (Aramco), the Saudi state-owned oil giant, yesterday posted first-quarter profits of US$26 billion, down 4.6 percent from the prior year as falling global oil prices undermine the kingdom’s multitrillion-dollar development plans. Aramco had revenues of US$108.1 billion over the quarter, the company reported in a filing on Riyadh’s Tadawul stock exchange. The company saw US$107.2 billion in revenues and profits of US$27.2 billion for the same period last year. Saudi Arabia has promised to invest US$600 billion in the US over the course of US President Donald Trump’s second term. Trump, who is set to touch
SKEPTICAL: An economist said it is possible US and Chinese officials would walk away from the meeting saying talks were productive, without reducing tariffs at all US President Donald Trump hailed a “total reset” in US-China trade relations, ahead of a second day of talks yesterday between top officials from Washington and Beijing aimed at de-escalating trade tensions sparked by his aggressive tariff rollout. In a Truth Social post early yesterday, Trump praised the “very good” discussions and deemed them “a total reset negotiated in a friendly, but constructive, manner.” The second day of closed-door meetings between US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng (何立峰) were due to restart yesterday morning, said a person familiar
RSS