Micron Promises $150 Billion of Spending on Plants, R&D
- U.S. chipmaker wants government support to build factories
- Only about 2% of memory chips are produced in the U.S.
Micron Technology Inc., the only remaining major U.S. maker of memory semiconductors, said it will spend $150 billion over the next decade and wants government help to make sure the investment is made at home.
The budget for research and development and capital spending represents an increase from Micron’s historic levels and is needed to meet demand for chips that help process and store data in phones and computers, the Boise, Idaho-based company said Wednesday. Micron hasn’t yet decided where it will build future plants, said Chief Business Officer Sumit Sadana.
“We’re investigating different sites in the U.S. and also obviously looking at existing locations,” he said in an interview. Most of Micron’s production is done in Japan, Singapore and Taiwan.
Micron wants political leaders to step up and provide it with grants and tax breaks that will reduce the 45% higher cost of setting up a chip plant in the U.S., Sadana said. In the 1970s, the U.S. was home to the majority of memory chip production but it’s now responsible for just 2%, he said. In recent years, memory chips sales have surged, accounting for 30% of the $460 billion semiconductor industry, up from around 10% a decade ago, Sadana said.