Micron announces investment of more than $150 billion for R&D and manufacturing
Micron announced that it plans to invest more than $150 billion globally in the next ten years for memory manufacturing and research and development (R&D), including increasing the production capacity of its fabs to meet the growing demand for memory. The proportion of memory and storage chips in the global semiconductor industry is growing and currently accounts for about 30% of the semiconductor market. Fields such as 5G and artificial intelligence are long-term growth drivers, which will expand the use of memory and storage chips in user equipment such as data centers, edge computing, and automobiles.
At present, Micron’s production and R&D network cover 13 regions around the world. In the past half-century, it has accumulated more than 47,000 patents. Billions of dollars are spent on research and development each year, and most of the investment is spent on Micron’s R&D center operated at its headquarters in the United States. This is one of the world’s most advanced semiconductor technology development centers and will carry out cutting-edge research, design, and development work.
Micron President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said that memory is at the forefront of semiconductor manufacturing, powering everything from feature-rich 5G smartphones to cloud computing that supports artificial intelligence. Micron is in a leading position in DRAM and NAND technology and hopes to expand memory innovation into the next decade and provide customers with differentiated products.
Recently, some media pointed out that Micron may expand its production base in Hiroshima, Japan in the near future. The new fab will be put into use in 2024, mainly producing DRAM used in data centers, and it is expected to create 2,000 to 3,000 jobs.
