Micron announced a new U.S. expansion strategy this month, expanding its investment plan to $150 million, plans to build an HBM packaging plant in Virginia, and invest about $50 billion in research and development. Micron revealed this month that the company's first new wafer fab in the United States in many years will be operational in the second half of 2027.
Following the enactment of the Chips and Science Act in August 2022, Micron Technology announced major plans to invest more than $115 billion in new wafer fabs in Idaho and New York, with the goal of producing 40% of DRAM products in the United States in the next decade. Under the new plan, Micron Technology plans to invest $200 billion in memory production and research and development in the United States over the next 20 years with the support of the U.S. government.
This includes $150 billion in manufacturing and $50 billion in research and development, with the goal of creating about 90,000 direct and indirect jobs. The new plan envisions the construction of two cutting-edge DRAM wafer fabs in Idaho, a plant containing four wafer fabs in New York State, and an HBM packaging plant in Virginia. Let's take a closer look at these plans for Micron Technology.
$200 billion plan
Micron invests 150 billion to build a factory in the U.S. for R&D, with overseas production capacity still the main focus
The first part of the original plan was to build one of the world's largest and most advanced DRAM production facilities near Boise, Idaho, now known as Fab ID1. Once fully equipped for production, ID1 will have 600,000 square feet of cleanroom space. That's about twice the cleanroom capacity of GlobalFoundries' Fab 8 and comparable to the large fabs operated in South Korea by competitors Samsung and SK Hynix.
Micron announced this week that its first new Idaho fab (ID1) reached a key construction milestone in June 2025 and is expected to begin producing wafers in the second half of 2027, with customer qualifications to follow. The second Idaho fab (ID2) will be built near ID1, benefiting from shared infrastructure and co-location of an R&D center. Micron expects ID2 to be operational before the New York fab, but the company did not disclose a specific timeline.
However, while Micron has broken ground on its new Idaho facility, with ID1 expected to be operational in a few years, the company has struggled to start construction near Clay, New York. Micron plans to begin construction work on its New York facility in late 2025 after completing federal and state environmental assessments. Micron's New York plan is more ambitious than its Idaho plan as it involves four factory phases with a cleanroom area of approximately 600,000 square feet (about 55,700 square meters). While a specific timeline for the plant's commissioning has not yet been announced, it is certain that the plant is part of Micron's long-term strategic efforts to establish a strong domestic manufacturing base to meet commercial and national computing needs.
In addition to the new wafer fab, Micron will also expand its plant in Manassas, Virginia. Currently, the plant produces memory chips for automotive, aerospace, defense and industrial applications. After the upgrade, the plant will gain production capacity as well as advanced packaging capabilities to assemble HBM memory stacks in the United States. However, Micron will only add HBM capacity at its Virginia plant after it ramps up DRAM wafer production at its Boise, Idaho fab. Nonetheless, Micron is expected to produce HBM5 or HBM6 in the United States.
"As part of this $200 billion investment plan, Micron plans to bring advanced packaging capabilities to the U.S. once sufficient DRAM wafer production capacity is established in the U.S. business to support our long-term HBM growth plans," said Sanjay Mehrotra, Micron CEO and Chairman.
"Our first Idaho fab, ID1, achieved another important construction milestone in June. We expect ID1 to begin producing first DRAM wafers in the second half of 2027, followed by customer qualification. The second Idaho fab, ID2, will benefit from the scaled production economics of ID1 combined with R&D co-location to achieve greater efficiency and faster time to market. To meet expected demand, ID2 will be commissioned before the first New York fab. We expect to begin land preparation in New York State later this year after the state and federal environmental assessments are completed," he concluded.
Unknowns
While Micron has made clear that it plans to invest about $150 billion in its U.S. manufacturing capabilities, the company has only disclosed a timeline for the completion of the soon-to-be-completed Fab ID1 facility and groundbreaking for the first New York facility. Micron did not mention timelines for other projects, only that it plans to invest $150 billion in its U.S. operations over the next 20 years or more.
But perhaps the biggest unknown in Micron's announcement is its $50 billion R&D program. The company will spend 10% to 20% of its revenue on R&D between 2022 and 2024 (up from $3.1 billion to $3.43 billion). Last year, the company invested $3.43 billion in R&D (14% of revenue), so $50 billion is Micron's R&D budget for about 14 years. However, the company does R&D not only in the U.S., but also in Japan, Taiwan, and Singapore. It is therefore unclear whether the $50 billion represents an increase in R&D operations in the U.S. at the expense of other locations, or whether an additional $50 billion in R&D investments in the U.S. over the next 20-plus years would be a significant addition to business-as-usual spending (less than $2.5 billion per year).
"Micron's plans for memory manufacturing and R&D in the U.S. underscore our commitment to driving innovation and strengthening the domestic semiconductor industry," Mehrotra said. "This investment of approximately $200 billion will strengthen America's technological leadership, create tens of thousands of American jobs across the semiconductor ecosystem, and ensure a domestic semiconductor supply—critical to economic and national security."
Micron expects all of its U.S. projects to qualify for the Advanced Manufacturing Investment Credit (AMIC) and has received support from local, state, and federal governments. This includes up to $6.4 billion in CHIPS Act funding for two wafer fabs in Idaho, two wafer fabs in New York, and a factory upgrade in Virginia.
In Summary
Micron plans to spend about $150 billion over the next 20-plus years to build six DRAM fabs in the U.S.: two near Boise, Idaho, and four near Clay, New York. In addition, the company plans to invest $50 billion in research and development in the U.S. over the same period.
Micron will continue to operate and expand its DRAM fabs outside the U.S., so it's not surprising that the majority of the company's volatile memory may still be produced in countries such as Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan.
It's worth noting that Micron doesn't appear to have plans to move NAND memory production to the U.S. at this time, perhaps because it wants to develop a storage-class memory technology that combines the performance of DRAM with the non-volatility of NAND and produce such devices in the U.S. However, since this memory won't replace NAND for quite some time, flash memory will remain widely used for many years to come.
Since Micron's DRAM and NAND fabs are located outside the U.S., it seems likely that the largest share of the company's production will be outside the U.S. even after its ambitious plan to invest $150 billion in building capacity in the U.S. is completed.
Source: Content compiled from tomshardware
Reference link
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/micron-details-new-u-s-fab-projects-idaho-fab-1-comes-online-in-2h-2027-new-york-fabs-come-later-hbm-assembly-in-the-u-s
