TOKYO – US chipmaker Micron Technology has placed Asia at the heart of its strategy for the NAND flash memory market, backed by the generous Singapore government as it looks to catch up with full-fledged competitors. pocket.
Micron sits firmly near the top of the market for DRAM, or dynamic random access memory, chipsets with a 23% share, part of a global oligopoly by Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix of South Korea. But it runs only fifth place in NAND at 11%, well behind Samsung and Japan’s Kioxia Holdings alliance – formerly known as Toshiba Memory – with US-based Western Digital.
Micron is working to change that. The company said in November that it had begun mass production of the world’s first 176-cover NAND chips at its manufacturing facilities in Singapore. The move reflects growing pressure in the region as an investment destination for chip makers as U.S.-China countermeasures show little sign of declining.
“For the first time in our history, Micron has technology leadership in both DRAM and NAND at the same time,” CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said in an employment call in January.
NAND memory is used in devices including smartphones and personal computers, as well as in data centers, a range of stiff competition among American and Chinese technology companies. The capacity of NAND chips can be enhanced by placing more memory cells on top of each other, allowing larger amounts of data to be stored in less space.
Micron has begun delivering 176-layer NAND chips, embedded in solid-state drivers under its own brand. Samsung and its Kioxia-Western Digital partnership have yet to bring any 176-cover products to market, while SK Hynix has said it plans to start mass production around mid-2021.
State-of-the-art drives are among the applications for 176-layer Micron-coated NAND chips. © Reuters
While other technologies such as product enhancements also play an important role in the competition for chip manufacturing supremacy, this development in mitigation could be a starting point for Micron’s work at NAND.
A key driver of this business is Micron’s production facility in Singapore, where the chipmaker has invested more than $ 15 billion since it entered the market in 1998 with the acquisition of Texas Instruments ’memory plant. Micron completed its third fab NAND in Singapore in 2019.
Development, production and quality control are all based in one place at the Singapore hub, said Manish Bhatia, executive vice president for global operations.
Singapore is famous for weaving the semiconductor industry. A report from Boston Consulting Group examined 10-year capital expenditures and operating costs for advanced memory manufacturing sites in different markets, with the U.S. as a baseline of 100. Singapore came in at just 79 – below Japan at 99 and South Korea at 81 – – thanks in large part to tax breaks and incentives that reduce the burden of capital spending.
The city has also implemented policies to support research and development. Its Research Innovation Initiative 2020 plan covering 2016-20 positioned advanced manufacturing technology as factory automation as a priority, and Micron was brought on board as a partner. The RIE 2025 plan for the next five years focuses on the application of technologies such as artificial innovation in manufacturing.
By improving memory prices, it earned Micron earnings in the three months through November. Revenue rose 12% year-on-year to $ 5.77 billion, while operating profit jumped 67% to $ 866 million.
But while the success of chipmaker’s state-of-the-art technology will be crucial to its prospects, Micron also needs to lead a consolidation wave sweeping the industry.
SK Hynix, the world’s fourth-largest NAND maker, said last year that it would buy Intel’s No. 6 NAND business, a deal that would put the South Korean company third behind Samsung and Kioxia-Western Digital. SK Hynix also has adjustable bonds in Kioxia that would allow it to take a 15% stake, a right they plan to make once the Japanese company goes public.
Micron ended its NAND partnership with Intel in 2018.
In this environment, contracts will be critical for access to facilities such as manufacturing equipment and materials. If Micron is left behind, “it could be the only one lost,” an analyst said.
Tha Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. – a chip maker, albeit in a different area of the industry – expects to record $ 28 billion this year. Samsung, a direct competitor to Micron, is expected to invest $ 30 billion in its semiconductor operations.
In addition to its chip development facilities in the US and NAND hub in Singapore, Micron does DRAM in Japan and Taiwan. The company is planning about $ 9 billion in capital expenditures during the fiscal year ending in August, with much of this going to Asia, and there is a slate to open a memory collection and testing facility in Malaysia this year.