US President Joe Biden’s administration yesterday finalized up to US$6.2 billion in funding for Micron Technology Inc, firming up a deal to boost domestic semiconductor production before Donald Trump returns to the White House.
The Biden administration has been working to green-light agreements with firms in the chipmaking supply chain over recent months, seeking to cement parts of his legacy before the government administration changes.
Once a deal is finalized, funds can start heading to companies when they hit certain milestones.
Photo: Qilai Shen, Bloomberg
The Micron investment helps to bring development and production of advanced memory semiconductor technology to US shores, US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said.
This “is crucial for safeguarding our leadership on artificial intelligence and protecting our economic and national security,” she added in a statement.
The United States has been trying to reduce its dependence on China and other countries for semiconductors.
The latest funding comes under the CHIPS and Science Act, a major law passed during Biden’s term aimed at strengthening the US semiconductor industry.
The Micron deal in particular supports the company’s two-decade plan to invest some US$100 billion in New York and US$25 billion in Idaho, the US Department of Commerce said.
This should create some 20,000 jobs and “help the US grow its share of advanced memory manufacturing from less than two percent today to approximately 10 percent by 2035,” the department added.
Apart from the efforts in New York and Idaho, the commerce department also signed a preliminary agreement with Micron for up to US$275 million in proposed funding to expand and modernize its facility in Virginia.
“As the only US-based manufacturer of memory, Micron is uniquely positioned to bring leading-edge memory manufacturing to the US,” Micron president Sanjay Mehrotra said in a statement.
The US used to make nearly 40 percent of the world’s chips but this proportion is now around 10 percent, with none being the most advanced chips.
Quanta Computer Inc (廣達) chairman Barry Lam (林百里) is expected to share his views about the artificial intelligence (AI) industry’s prospects during his speech at the company’s 37th anniversary ceremony, as AI servers have become a new growth engine for the equipment manufacturing service provider. Lam’s speech is much anticipated, as Quanta has risen as one of the world’s major AI server suppliers. The company reported a 30 percent year-on-year growth in consolidated revenue to NT$1.41 trillion (US$43.35 billion) last year, thanks to fast-growing demand for servers, especially those with AI capabilities. The company told investors in November last year that
United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) forecast that its wafer shipments this quarter would grow up to 7 percent sequentially and the factory utilization rate would rise to 75 percent, indicating that customers did not alter their ordering behavior due to the US President Donald Trump’s capricious US tariff policies. However, the uncertainty about US tariffs has weighed on the chipmaker’s business visibility for the second half of this year, UMC chief financial officer Liu Chi-tung (劉啟東) said at an online earnings conference yesterday. “Although the escalating trade tensions and global tariff policies have increased uncertainty in the semiconductor industry, we have not
Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) yesterday said it plans to ship its new 1 megawatt charging systems for electric trucks and buses in the first half of next year at the earliest. The new charging piles, which deliver up to 1 megawatt of charging power, are designed for heavy-duty electric vehicles, and support a maximum current of 1,500 amperes and output of 1,250 volts, Delta said in a news release. “If everything goes smoothly, we could begin shipping those new charging systems as early as in the first half of next year,” a company official said. The new
Intel Corp has named Tasha Chuang (莊蓓瑜) to lead Intel Taiwan in a bid to reinforce relations between the company and its Taiwanese partners. The appointment of Chuang as general manager for Intel Taiwan takes effect on Thursday, the firm said in a statement yesterday. Chuang is to lead her team in Taiwan to pursue product development and sales growth in an effort to reinforce the company’s ties with its partners and clients, Intel said. Chuang was previously in charge of managing Intel’s ties with leading Taiwanese PC brand Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), which included helping Asustek strengthen its global businesses, the company
RSS