Micron asks for government funding, Help it build two new factories

In September of the previous year, Micron Technology heralded its ambitious plan to invest approximately $15 billion over the next decade, inaugurating a semiconductor memory manufacturing facility in Boise, Idaho. This endeavor marks the first such domestic construction in the United States in two decades and represents the most substantial private investment in Idaho’s history. Micron anticipates that, by 2030, this venture will engender approximately 17,000 employment opportunities for the state, with 2,000 of these being direct positions.

According to Reuters, Micron has petitioned the government for financial backing to facilitate the construction of their new plants in Boise, Idaho, and Clay, New York.

The funds are purportedly drawn from the $52 billion budget of the “American Chips Act”, suggesting that Micron, mirroring Intel’s aspirations, seeks to persuade the government to allocate a more substantial financial portion to them than their competitors. Earlier, Intel’s CEO, Pat Gelsinger, underscored that the crux of Intel’s research and development transpires domestically and, given the extensive infrastructure they possess in the U.S., they merit a more generous subsidy.

However, the strategies of Intel and Micron have ignited controversy. Some critics argue that the capital from the “American Chips Act” is predominantly taxpayer-derived. Amidst the semiconductor market’s languid trajectory, these semiconductor giants, citing reasons including capacity expansion, are lobbying for substantial subsidies, which some see as a strategy to offset their performance deficits at others’ expense.

In October 2021, Micron unveiled plans to globally channel over $150 billion into memory manufacturing and research & development within the forthcoming decade. This includes augmenting the capacity of their wafer fabrication plants to meet the surging demand for memory. Micron contends that the prominence of memory and storage chips within the global semiconductor industry is on an upward trajectory, currently occupying approximately 30% of the market share.