Micron to invest $15 billion in new US unit

Micron Technology said on Thursday that it will invest about $15 billion over the next 10 years in a new memory chip factory in Idaho, USA.

This investment takes into account federal grants and credits from the CHIPS Act and will create 17,000 jobs by the end of the decade.

“Micron’s announcement is another big win for America,” US President Joe Biden said in a statement. “We make electric vehicles, chips, fiber optics and other critical components in America.”

The company did not provide details on the capacity of the new facility or the type of chips it will produce.

The expansion comes as Micron cut its fourth-quarter revenue forecast due to weak demand. Rival Seagate also lowered its quarterly expectations.

“Micron is playing up what the government wants to do, which is to build manufacturing facilities in the U.S.,” said Qinghai Chan, an analyst at Summit Intelligence.

The company plans to invest $40 billion by the end of the decade to build factories in the country in several phases to support its facilities in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Manassas, Virginia.