The US plans to award Micron Technology Inc US$6.1 billion in grants and as much as US$7.5 billion in loans to help the memory-chip maker build new US factories, rounding out a slew of major federal awards for advanced semiconductor manufacturing.
Micron pledged to invest about US$125 billion to build four factories in New York state and one in Idaho.
The company has separately applied for federal funding to support a project in Virginia, documents filed last week showed.
Photo: Reuters
US President Joe Biden is traveling to Syracuse, New York, as part of the event and plans to discuss how his agenda is shoring up the economy.
It would still be months before Micron actually receives any of the funding from the 2022 Chips and Science Act, which set aside US$39 billion for grants and US$75 billion worth of loans to boost US chipmaking and reduce reliance on Asia. Preliminary agreements like the one Micron announced yesterday trigger a due-diligence stage, after which the money would be handed out over time in tranches tied to construction and production benchmarks.
“The US$6.1 billion will supercharge Micron to bring back leading-edge memory manufacturing to the US,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York told reporters ahead of the announcement. “We cannot have these chips made overseas and let them be made by competitors like China.”
One plant that is already under construction in Boise would receive funding and be poised for production in 2026. Two more in the Syracuse area of New York state would be built and ready for manufacturing in 2028 and 2029. Micron also is planning two other facilities in New York that are not covered by the scope of yesterday’s preliminary agreement.
Computer memory is a vital part of everything from smartphones to supercomputers and works alongside processors made by companies such as Nvidia Corp and Intel Corp. The funding award guarantees that Micron would proceed with its first cutting-edge manufacturing expansion in the US in more than 20 years.
However, the expansion comes with risks for Micron. Memory chips have volatile prices because the components are built to industry specifications. That means they are interchangeable, resulting in a commodity-like market. Rapid swings between shortages and gluts have characterized Micron’s history and made sustained profitability difficult to achieve. It reported a net loss of more than US$5 billion last year — just a year after posting a huge profit.
US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo previously said that advanced chipmakers had requested more than double the amount of grant money set aside for them. The department allocated about US$28 billion of the US$39 billion pool for top-of-the-line facilities.
The four main advanced manufacturers building in the US — Micron, Intel, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co — are set to receive a combined US$27.6 billion in grants. The only other company that does such production, South Korea’s SK Hynix Inc, has committed to building a US packaging facility. That means the US would become the only country in the world with facilities run by all of the top manufacturers.
Micron’s projects are expected to generate 20,000 jobs spanning construction and manufacturing, the US Department of Commerce said. The company has also signed labor agreements with construction unions for its New York and Idaho sites, and its Chips Act grant sets aside US$40 million specifically for workforce training.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE: The chipmaker last month raised its capital spending by 28 percent for this year to NT$32 billion from a previous estimate of NT$25 billion Contract chipmaker Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電子) yesterday launched a new 12-inch fab, tapping into advanced chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) packaging technology to support rising demand for artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Powerchip is to offer interposers, one of three parts in CoWoS packaging technology, with shipments scheduled for the second half of this year, Powerchip chairman Frank Huang (黃崇仁) told reporters on the sidelines of a fab inauguration ceremony in the Tongluo Science Park (銅鑼科學園區) in Miaoli County yesterday. “We are working with customers to supply CoWoS-related business, utilizing part of this new fab’s capacity,” Huang said, adding that Powerchip intended to bridge
purpose: Tesla’s CEO sought to meet senior Chinese officials to discuss the rollout of its ‘full self-driving’ software in China and approval to transfer data they had collected Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk arrived in Beijing yesterday on an unannounced visit, where he is expected to meet senior officials to discuss the rollout of "full self-driving" (FSD) software and permission to transfer data overseas, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Chinese state media reported that he met Premier Li Qiang (李強) in Beijing, during which Li told Musk that Tesla's development in China could be regarded as a successful example of US-China economic and trade cooperation. Musk confirmed his meeting with the premier yesterday with a post on social media platform X. "Honored to meet with Premier Li
Dutch brewing company Heineken NV on Friday announced an investment of NT$13.5 billion (US$414.62 million) over the next five years in Taiwan. The first multinational brewing company to operate in Taiwan, Heineken made the statement at a ceremony held at its brewery in Pingtung County. It also outlined its efforts to make the brewery “net zero” by 2030. Heineken has been in the Taiwanese market for 20 years, Heineken Taiwan managing director Jeff Wu (吳建甫) said. With strong support from local consumers, the Dutch brewery decided to transition from sales to manufacturing in the country, Wu said. Heineken assumed majority ownership and management rights
Microsoft Corp yesterday said that it would create Thailand’s first data center region to boost cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, promising AI training to more than 100,000 people to develop tech. Bangkok is a key economic player in Southeast Asia, but it has lagged behind Indonesia and Singapore when it comes to the tech industry. Thailand has an “incredible opportunity to build a digital-first, AI-powered future,” Microsoft chairman and chief executive officer Satya Nadella said at an event in Bangkok. Data center regions are physical locations that store computing infrastructure, allowing secure and reliable access to cloud platforms. The global embrace of AI