Micron's capacity expansions won't take effect for at least 1.5 years
Memory giant Micron wants to buy a Taiwanese semiconductor plant. But it will also take time until significant quantities of memory roll off the production line.
(Image: Micron)
US manufacturer Micron and Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC) from Taiwan intend to enter into a partnership. In a letter of intent, both companies are outlining framework conditions. The biggest point: Micron wants to acquire PSMC's P5 semiconductor plant in northwestern Taiwan for 1.8 billion US dollars.
Micron will set up new production lines on nearly 280,000 square meters of cleanroom space and deploy its employees if everything goes according to plan. Although the waiting time for a complete new construction is eliminated, mass production will still take more than a year. This is how much time Micron needs to procure the necessary machinery and ramp up production according to its specifications.
From the start of production to completion, a silicon wafer then typically takes several more months. In the second half of 2027, the semiconductor plant is expected to contribute to a “significant increase in DRAM wafer production,” Micron writes in its announcement. Micron already operates a semiconductor plant in nearby Taichung.
In parallel, Micron is building a new semiconductor plant in Onondaga, New York, where ground was broken in mid-January. The manufacturer markets the site as a “historic megafab” with potential total investments of 100 billion US dollars. However, this sum is currently only theoretical – it includes possible expansions over the next 20 years or more. The site is large enough for four semiconductor plants, but initially only one will be built. It will likely take several years for mass production to start there.
New License Agreement
Meanwhile, PSMC intends to transfer the machinery and employees of the P5 plant to the P3 plant in Hsinchu, 51 km away. Mass layoffs are not planned, according to the announcement. As part of a license agreement, PSMC wants to modernize its production overall and design it for AI products. In addition to DRAM, this includes interposers and stacking technology, for example. PSMC will also partially handle the so-called packaging for Micron memory, i.e., packaging its memory chips in plastic housings.
PSMC currently manufactures DRAM with structure widths in the 20-nanometer class, which includes everything between 20 and 29 nm. Micron and competitors Samsung and SK Hynix have already released several generations in the 10-nm class. PSMC also acts as a contract chip manufacturer, but only offers processes up to 40 nm for logic chips.
License agreements between small and large memory manufacturers have been common for a long time. PSMC has already licensed previous DRAM patents from the current Micron subsidiary Elpida. In-house developments are not worthwhile for small companies, while the three global market leaders, with a combined market share of over 90 percent, have no serious competition to fear.
Videos by heise
Years of Losses
In the short term, the 1.8 billion US dollar capital injection will likely be most important for PSMC. The manufacturer has been making losses since 2023; in the most recently reported third quarter of 2025, it was a good 2.7 billion Taiwan dollars, approximately 86 million US dollars at the current exchange rate.
Market observer Trendforce ranks PSMC, by a wide margin, 6th among the world's largest DRAM manufacturers, with a negligible market share of 0.1 percent.
Empfohlener redaktioneller Inhalt
Mit Ihrer Zustimmung wird hier ein externer Preisvergleich (heise Preisvergleich) geladen.
Ich bin damit einverstanden, dass mir externe Inhalte angezeigt werden. Damit können personenbezogene Daten an Drittplattformen (heise Preisvergleich) übermittelt werden. Mehr dazu in unserer Datenschutzerklärung.
(mma)
