Micron Technology Inc chief executive officer Sanjay Mehrotra said he is seeing “healthy” trends for the DRAM industry, which would extend beyond the first quarter of next year, given falling inventories and increasing memorychip demand to support emerging artificial intelligence (AI) and other new applications.
“What’s happening now is that the demand growth is actually greater than the supply growth. As a result, the supply and demand balance is starting to improve,” Mehrotra told Unique Satellite TV (非凡電視) in Taipei on Wednesday.
“There is still excessive inventory in the DRAM industry and producers, but the inventory is coming down fast,” he said.
“When I look beyond the calendar first quarter of 2020, I see healthy demand trends for DRAM in all end markets. AI and IoT [Internet of Things] are requiring more and more memory,” he said.
This was Mehrotra’s second visit to Taiwan since he assumed the post in April 2017.
Taiwan is the biggest DRAM production site for Micron, the world’s third-largest DRAM chipmaker with a market share of 20 percent last quarter.
To cope with rising demand, Micron is expanding its cleanroom space in Taichung, Mehrotra said.
The new fab, dubbed A3, is to commence production in 2021 after construction is completed by the end of next year, he said.
Upon completion, Taiwan will become “the world’s leader in DRAM technology and production capability,” he said.
Micron told the Taipei Times in August that the firm planned to use the A3 fab to produce DRAM chips on 1z-nanometer process technology, the most advanced in the industry.
The US company has two 12-inch fabs — A1 and A2 — in Taoyuan and Taichung, and one 3D DRAM packaging fab in Taichung, employing nearly 8,000 workers in total.
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