Micron Technology Inc unveiled a newly acquired chip plant in Miaoli County yesterday, as the company expands capacity to meet growing demand for advanced DRAM chips, including high-bandwidth memory chips amid the artificial intelligence boom.
The plant in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), which Micron acquired from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp (力積電) for US$1.8 billion, is expected to make a sizeable capacity contribution to the company from fiscal 2028, the company said in a statement.
It would be an extended production site of Micron’s large-scale manufacturing hub in Taichung, the company said.
Photo: Tsai Cheng-min, Taipei Times
As the global semiconductor industry is racing to reach US$1 trillion in revenue this year, four years ahead of researchers’ expectations, segments “of memory and storage [are] projected to be the fastest growing,” Micron senior vice president for global front-end operations Buddy Nicoson said at the plant’s unveiling ceremony.
“This clearly shows that demand for advanced memory is growing at an unprecedented pace,” Nicoson said. “The launch of Tongluo site symbolizes the flexibility and agility that we bring to meet our customers’ needs.”
“At the same time, Tongluo is a critical part of Micron’s global manufacturing expansion strategy,” he said.
In addition to Taiwan, Micron is expanding capacities across the US, Japan, Singapore and India to build a resilient and flexible global manufacturing network, he added.
The company on Monday moved in the first batch of chip manufacturing equipment to the Tongluo plant, Micron Memory Taiwan Co (台灣美光) head Donghui Lu (盧東暉) said.
The new plant plans to hire 1,000 new employees, which would boost the number of Micron’s employees in Taiwan to about 15,000 by the end of this year, Lu said.
The company would continue to improve its advanced DRAM manufacturing and packaging capabilities in Taiwan, with HBM remaining a key focus, he said.
As of January, Micron had invested NT$1.4 trillion (US$43.88 billion) in Taiwan, making the company the largest foreign investor in Taiwan, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said during the ceremony.
That also elevated Taiwan’s role as the largest memory manufacturing hub for Micron in the world, Cho said.
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