Micron Technology will invest 500 billion yen ($3.6 billion) in Japan over the next five years with government help to develop next-generation memory chips.
The action shows that the Japanese government is ambitiously reviving the semiconductor space and importing chip technology to reinforce the chip supply chain amid the U.S.-China conflict.
At its Hiroshima plant, the U.S. chip giant will install extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography to create 1-gamma chips, the next generation of dynamic random access memory (DRAM).
The world’s tiniest cell will be the 1-gamma node, which follows the industry’s most sophisticated 1-beta node. “Ramp EUV into production on the 1-gamma node in Taiwan and Japan from 2025 onwards,” Micron added. Micron’s Hiroshima factory started 1-beta DRAM manufacture in November.
Japan’s lone DRAM manufacturer, Micron, will send EUV chip-making equipment to Japan first. EUV technology with the 1-gamma node will enable the next-generation node “to deliver faster, more power-efficient and higher-performance memory products.”
Japanese automotive, data center companies, 5G infrastructure, and medical equipment utilize around one-third of DRAM from the U.S. chip giant.
“We are proud to be the first to use EUV in Japan and to be developing and manufacturing 1-gamma at our Hiroshima fab,” Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra stated.
After meeting Micron, TSMC, Samsung, and Intel officials on Thursday in Japan, Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida announced the investment. Some chipmakers considered investing more in Japan. However, only Micron has committed to the country. Japan supports its chip industry.
The Japanese government, Kioxia, SoftBank, Sony, Toyota, and NEC sponsored Rapidus last year to create 2-nanometer processors by 2027. It also funded a collaborative chip research center and chipmakers, including Kioxia, TSMC, and Micron, to build plants in Japan.
“This partnership demonstrates how allies, when working together, can create economic opportunity and security in cutting-edge technologies,” said U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel.
The Chinese cybersecurity watchdog began investigating Micron a month ago. In nearly the previous five years, Micron has hired nearly 1,500 Japanese workers.
