Micron plans investment of up to US$100b in New York chip factory

MICRON Technology said it plans to invest as much as US$100 billion over the next 20 years to build a factory in upstate New York to boost US production of memory chips.

The announcement on Tuesday (Oct 4) represents the largest private investment in New York state history, according to a statement from Boise, Idaho-based Micron. The company said the first phase investment of US$20 billion, in Clay, New York, is planned by the end of this decade.

The New York site, which will generate about 50,000 jobs in the state, including about 9,000 high-paying Micron positions, adds to the company’s previously announced manufacturing facility in Boise. The company said it expects to get US$5.5 billion in incentives from the state of New York over the course of the project.

The so-called megafab chip factory complex is part of Micron’s strategy to “gradually increase American-made leading-edge DRAM production to 40 per cent of the company’s global output over the next decade,” Micron said in a statement.

Micron’s commitment comes after the US government passed the CHIPS and Science Act in August, providing US$52 billion to boost domestic semiconductor research and development. The bill is at the centre of the Biden administration’s effort to reduce dependence on Asian suppliers like Taiwan and South Korea, whose homegrown companies are leading the market, and to address supply-chain disruptions and resulting price hikes for certain goods containing semiconductors.

The bill’s signing spurred US chip companies to plan billions of US dollars in new investments. For example, Qualcomm is partnering with GlobalFoundries, which also has a facility in New York state, in a US$4.2 billion agreement to manufacture chips.

“I am grateful to President Biden and his administration for making the CHIPS and Science Act a priority,” said Micron chief executive officer Sanjay Mehrotra.

Site preparation work will start next year and construction will begin in 2024. Production output will increase in the latter half of the decade, gradually increasing in line with industry demand, according to the statement from Micron.

The site, near Syracuse, New York, could eventually include four 600,000 square foot cleanrooms, accounting for a total of 2.4 million square feet of cleanroom space - the size of about 40 US football fields. BLOOMBERG