Just two months after saying more local job cuts weren’t expected, computer chip maker Micron Technology Inc announced it will slash as many as 2,000 workers by the end of August and phase out certain manufacturing operations at its Boise, Idaho, facility, amid the weak economy and lower demand for its dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips.
The company said late on Monday it would end manufacturing of DRAMs on 200mm wafers in Boise, cutting 500 jobs in the near term. The 200mm wafers are being shelved in favor of 300mm wafer plants, which are more cost-effective.
DRAM has suffered in the last two years from oversupply and pricing pressure on chips used in personal computers and the slumping automobile industry. Micron’s rivals also are hurting. South Korea’s Hynix Semiconductor has posted five consecutive quarterly losses, including nearly US$1 billion in the three months ending Dec. 31, while German memory-chip maker Qimonda AG filed for bankruptcy protection last month.
Hynix has said DRAM prices dropped 43 percent from the third quarter.
Micron’s latest cuts come on top of a 15 percent company-wide layoff announced in October, in which it eliminated about 3,000 of its 19,000 total positions. About 1,500 of those were in Boise, as it shut down the NAND flash memory plant it operated as part of a joint venture with Intel Corp.
Now, Micron would employ just over 5,000 people in the state, down from more than 10,000 two years ago. Once Idaho’s largest private employer, it will trail St Luke’s hospitals and Wal-Mart Stores Inc, which have some 7,500 workers.
The latest action will cost Micron about US$50 million, but is expected to generate annual cash savings of about US$150 million.
Micron plans to keep its 300mm research and development fabrication facility at its site in the desert near Boise, where it does product design and support, quality control and also has corporate and general services offices.
Spokesman Dan Francisco called those vital services for the company.
He said the 200mm wafer manufacturing facilities being shuttered would be kept in a “warm-down state” and could eventually be used for additional, unspecified manufacturing activities. The company doesn’t expects the moves would result in any disruption in product supply to customers.
“We remained hopeful that the demand for these products would stabilize in the marketplace and start to improve as we moved into the spring. Unfortunately, a better environment has not materialized, and we are at a point where we wanted to let our employees and the community know in advance what will occur later this summer,” Micron chairman and chief executive Steve Appleton said in a statement.
Addressing shareholders in December, Appleton had said Micron would continue to evaluate staffing levels as dictated by the market, but didn’t foresee more staffing cuts in Boise.
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
RSS