Micron Technology, the world's third-largest memory chipmaker, has started operations at a new packaging plant in Taichung, central Taiwan, to expand its production capacity for artificial intelligence memory.
Micron held an opening ceremony for its second Advanced Assembly and Test Taichung plant (AATT2) at the Houli campus of the Central Taiwan Science Park on the 15th, according to Taiwan's Economic Daily News and Commercial Times on the 16th.
Donghui Lu, chairman of Micron Taiwan, said AATT2 is the company's second advanced packaging and test facility in Taiwan and that the plant will build up its ability to meet demand from the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and AI-driven markets. Customer bookings for the company's HBM production facilities are fully taken through 2027, the chairman said, adding that HBM demand growth is expected to outpace that of conventional DRAM through 2028. Separately from the AATT2 launch, Micron will also open an advanced HBM packaging plant in Singapore in 2027 to support continued growth in demand from the AI market, the chairman said.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te said the opening will not only strengthen Micron's position and global competitiveness but also give a significant boost to Taiwan's semiconductor industry. He noted that Micron has been rooted in Taiwan for more than three decades and that its cumulative investment has surpassed 1.6 trillion Taiwan dollars, or about 66 trillion won ($46.2 billion). He also said he expects Taiwan to reap investment benefits as Micron expands its HBM operations, following TSMC, the world's largest foundry.
Micron is expanding plants in four locations in Taiwan: Taoyuan in the north, Tongluo in Miaoli County, Taichung in the central region and Tainan in the south. Taichung is the company's largest manufacturing base in Taiwan and its core hub for HBM back-end processing. Fab 11 in Taoyuan, scheduled to begin operations in 2028, will adopt an advanced extreme ultraviolet (EUV) process.
Lai also said he hopes both sides will reach the greatest possible accord through sincere negotiations in a labor dispute at Micron over the distribution of operating profit. Micron said it will continue to gather employee views and engage in substantive dialogue and communication.
The union, however, plans to hold a rally near the Presidential Office on the 19th as scheduled, and says it will take further action if no specific agreement is reached by the 22nd. The union earlier secured the right to strike on the 7th, winning overwhelming approval in a strike vote that backed a demand for 15% of operating profit to be shared with workers.