Taiwan has a well-established ecosystem for producing semiconductors, which is why Micron Technology Inc has decided to produce its most advanced DRAM chips in the country, corporate vice president and head of Micron Taiwan Donghui Lu (盧東暉) said in an exclusive interview with the Central News Agency.
Micron Technology announced in May that it would mass produce DRAM chips on its most advanced 1-gamma node in its fab in Taichung in 2025, ahead of any other production site worldwide.
The 1-gamma node would use cutting-edge extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography production equipment. It would be the first Micron DRAM process node to use EUV technology. The process was jointly developed by Micron research and development teams in Taiwan and Japan.
Photo: CNA
Despite the debated geopolitical risks and calls for the “de-Taiwanization” of chipmaking, Lu said that Micron’s investment strategy has not changed, adding that he does not believe these negative sentiments have clouded Taiwan’s prospects in the industry.
“If you can beat your competitors in terms of product quality to the point where there are no alternatives, there is no need to worry because silicon never lies,” Lu said.
The Micron Taiwan head said high bandwidth memory (HBM) and 1-beta and 1-gamma process technology all cost money that can only be spent in Taiwan.
HBM is a new type of 3D memory that vertically stacks memory chips. It is designed to keep up with the performance and power efficiency of resource-intensive applications such as data centers and artificial intelligence.
Micron’s HBM has been facilitated by the 1-beta DRAM process node, which is followed by the latest 1-gamma node.
Taiwan and Japan are the only two production sites for Micron’s DRAM. More than 65 percent of Micron’s DRAM products are manufactured in Taiwan. The Japanese fab started mass producing 1-beta node DRAM chips in October last year, with its Taiwan fab following suit.
Production capacity is expected to expand in the two countries over the next few years, Lu said.
There are several reasons that Taiwan would remain an important investment destination for Micron, he said.
One is that Taiwan’s ecosystem is well-established, and it is difficult for other countries to achieve the same level in the span of a few years, he said.
Another reason is that the semiconductor industry has a long history in Taiwan, so the government, local enterprises and human resources are all highly familiar with the industry, Lu said.
With many countries readjusting their view of the global supply chain following the COVID-19 pandemic, and amidst continuing US-China tensions and the rebranding of the semiconductor industry as a national security priority, supply chain localization is on the rise.
Micron responded to the US government’s calls for domestic manufacturing by making major investments in the US last year. Many worried that the company’s investments in Taiwan would be adversely affected as a result.
However, Lu said the chip industry is globalized and Micron has customers all over the world.
The company would continue providing services to its customers with advanced techniques and would not leave Taiwan for geopolitical reasons, he said, adding that Micron would also continue to grow in Japan and the US to build a more resilient supply chain and be closer to its customers.
Taiwan has a clear advantage in keeping foreign investment, he said.
“While the US and Europe both want to build their own supply chains, Taiwan has spent 40 years achieving the scale it has now. It is an achievement of accumulation that cannot be achieved in one leap.”
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
RSS