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The US is offering more than $13bn in direct funding and loans to help Micron boost its domestic production of chips, including plans for a ‘megafab’ in New York.
The US has agreed to give up to $6.14bn in direct funding to Micron, as the country continues its plans to boost domestic production of semiconductors.
The investment is expected to support the construction of two new facilities in the US focused on chip manufacturing. The US White House said this support could lead to $50bn in private investment by Micron by 2030.
The US is trying to support Micron’s plan to invest up to $125bn across New York and Idaho over the next two decades, as the US manufacturer plans to build a “memory manufacturing ecosystem”.
The government funding will support the construction of the first two fabrication plants, or fabs, of a planned four fab ‘megafab’ in New York, which will be focused on DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) chip production. Funding will also support a high-volume manufacturing fab in Idaho.
Micron’s plans are expected to boost the US domestic production of semiconductors and create roughly 20,000 facility and construction jobs. The company also has the option of getting up to $7.5bn in loans under the US Chips Act. Meanwhile, the state of New York has also committed to providing $5.5bn to support Micron’s megafab plans.
US secretary of commerce Gina Raimondo said memory chips are foundational to “all advanced technologies” and that the latest investment is part of the Chips programme – which relates to “onshoring the development and production of the most advanced memory semiconductor technology”.
“America is rebuilding its capacity to produce these critical capabilities for the first time in almost two decades,” Raimondo said.
The US has made a number of key investment decisions recently to strengthen its domestic production of advanced semiconductors.
Earlier this month, the US confirmed a non-binding agreement to give Samsung up to $6.4bn, to help the company invest more than $40bn into semiconductor projects in Texas. The US also awarded TSMC billions of dollars in similar subsidies and loans to boost semiconductor production.
Last month, the US government said it would give Intel $8.5bn to help the chipmaker boost domestic production.
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