Micron to construct US$24 billion wafer plant in Singapore to spice up AI chip provide

American chipmaker Micron is investing US$24 billion in a brand new facility in Singapore that may make extra wafers that kind the premise of right this moment’s most sought-after reminiscence chips for AI.

The funding, unfold over the subsequent decade, goals to broaden its present facility within the north of Singapore by offering an extra 700,000 sq. ft of cleanroom house.

The brand new house, sitting inside a producing complicated that features a high-bandwidth reminiscence (HBM) packaging facility introduced final 12 months, will begin producing its first wafers from the second half of 2028.

This comes because the world faces a scarcity of superior chips which are used for each reminiscence and storage gadgets in not simply AI servers but additionally PCs, smartphones and hundreds of thousands of different digital gadgets like automobile automation techniques.

The demand from AI firms is so acute that producers reminiscent of Micron and rival Korean companies Samsung and SK Hynix are prioritising that higher-margin enterprise over client purposes.

Final month, Micron axed its 29-year-old client reminiscence and storage enterprise. In the meantime, costs for client gadgets like PCs and smartphones are anticipated to be pushed up till late 2027, say some consultants.

The elevated manufacturing from Micron’s new Singapore plant would possibly but ease a few of that provide crunch, when it will definitely rolls out the primary wafers.

Marking its groundbreaking yesterday, the corporate stated it might create 1,600 new jobs in Singapore, including to the 1,400 for the HBM facility introduced earlier within the nation.

These 3,000 new jobs can be for fab engineering and operations, integrating AI, superior robotics and good manufacturing applied sciences to boost effectivity and innovation.

For Singapore, the brand new facility will assist retain its significance within the international semiconductor provide chain, as a part of the nation’s ambitions to be a key AI innovator.