Micron to build $7 billion plant in Japan to expand DRAM production

TOKYO (Reuters) -U.S. reminiscence chip maker Micron Know-how Inc (NASDAQ:) will construct a brand new manufacturing facility at its Japanese manufacturing web site in Hiroshima at a value of 800 billion yen ($7.0 billion), the Nikkan Kogyo newspaper reported on Wednesday.

The brand new facility will make DRAM chips, that are extensively utilized in information centres, with manufacturing set to start in 2024, the report mentioned, with out citing sources.

Micron officers in Japan weren’t instantly accessible to remark.

COVID-19 pandemic stay-at-home demand for digital units is inflicting shortages of non-memory chips that has pressured some producers, resembling automakers and smartphone makers, to curtail manufacturing. That has additionally lowered gross sales of DRAM reminiscence chips, however some trade watchers anticipate demand to rebound helped by an growth of information centres.

The report comes after chip big Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.(TSMC) introduced plans final week to construct a plant in Japan, that media reviews mentioned could also be partly paid for by the Japanese authorities.

Japan needs to lure chipmakers to the nation to make sure its firms have prepared entry to provides of semiconductors essential to preserve its economic system aggressive.

Micron, which additionally produces slower, however cheaper, NAND reminiscence chips for the information storage market, makes 300 millimetre DRAM semiconductors at its plant in Hiroshima and has a analysis and growth facility there.

($1 = 114.5100 yen)