Micron to invest $150B in memory chip production to support data economy

Micron Technology said it plans to invest $150 billion in the coming decade to boost semiconductor production.

And Idaho-based Micron is asking Congress to pass legislation to help with domestic plant expansion, said Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. Part of the aim is to support the data economy.

“We will be engaging with the governments around the globe, including in the U.S., to address our needs for growing our supply in line with our demand expectations for the 2030 era,” he said.

The plans aim at keeping up with a huge boom in demand in the wake of the pandemic. The global supply chain whipsawed as companies first cut their demand then increased orders out of a panic as supplies became short. KPMG estimated that car makers would lose $100 billion in sales due to a shortage of chips in 2021.

Intel also pledged to invest $20 billion this year to expand in the U.S. It said it would also spend $95 billion to make chips in Europe. Micron plans to spend $12 billion.

GlobalFoundries also said it would raise $2.6 billion at a $25 billion valuation in a public offering. Much of the efforts of Intel, Micron, and GlobalFoundries are aimed at restoring chip production in the U.S., which once had the majority market share in manufacturing. Now companies such as TSMC in Taiwan dominate chip production.

The U.S. Senate passed a bill in June to subsidize production with $52 billion in research and development. The House hasn’t acted yet. Shortages, meanwhile, are expected to last until 2023.

GlobalFoundries, which was formerly the chip production arm of Advanced Micro Devices, is now a production-focused foundry, or maker of chips designed by other companies. It is owned by Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund Mubadala Investment Company. Now it is planning to take the company public, though Mubadala would still control about 89% of the company after the listing.

So far this year, U.S. IPOs have raised a record $250 billion this year.

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz