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Micron to invest $15 billion on memory chip plant in Boise | AP News

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Via: perrie-halpern • 3 years ago • 9 comments

By: MATT OTT (AP NEWS)

Micron to invest $15 billion on memory chip plant in Boise | AP News

Micron will invest $15 billion though the end of the decade on a new semiconductor plant in its hometown that the chipmaker said will create 17,000 American jobs. Sanjay Mehrotra, president and CEO of Boise, Idaho-based Micron, said his company's investment was made possible by last month's passage of the CHIPS and Science ACT of 2022, a $280 billion bill aimed at bolstering U.S.

S E E D E D C O N T E N T

Micron will invest $15 billion though the end of the decade on a new semiconductor plant in its hometown that the chipmaker said will create 17,000 American jobs.

Sanjay Mehrotra, president and CEO of Boise, Idaho-based Micron, said his company's investment was made possible by last month's passage of the CHIPS and Science ACT of 2022, a $280 billion bill aimed at bolstering U.S. competitiveness against China and avoiding another chip shortage like the one that derailed the auto and tech industries during the pandemic.

The CHIPS law sets aside $52 billion to bolster the semiconductor industry, which due to COVID-related supply chain constraints beginning in 2020, has struggled to manufacture the diminutive chips that power everything from smartphones to computers to automobiles.

"Our new leading-edge memory manufacturing fab will fuel U.S. technology leadership, ensuring a reliable domestic supply of semiconductors that is critical to economic and national security," Mehrotra said.

Micron said locating the manufacturing plant at the company's operational headquarter will improve efficiency and help get products to market faster.

Boise Mayor Lauren McLean said the partnership will help the city's economy grow and attract and diverse workforce.

"This is a once in a generation investment in Boise from a home-grown company that is critical to the economic vitality of our community, our state and our nation," McLean wrote on Twitter.

McLean and Mehrotra last month attended President Biden's bill signing ceremony for the CHIPS and Science Act. Idaho's entire congressional delegation, all Republicans, voted against it.

Biden called the Micron announcement "another big win for America."

Micron is one of Idaho's largest employers. The company has several chip manufacturing plants around the world, including in Singapore and Taiwan.

Last week, the chipmaker Intel Corp. announced that it would break ground Sept. 9 on its planned $20 billion Ohio semiconductor facilities. The factories, known as fabs, are expected to open in 2025. President Biden is scheduled to attend the groundbreaking.

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Professor Quiet

1 Ed-NavDoc 3 years ago

Wonder if and how many of those chips will eventually wind up in China?

Professor Expert

2 Nerm_L 3 years ago

Yes, these stories are good news. But we can't allow ourselves to backslide into complacency once the headlines fade. We need to change our thinking about free trade to protect these investments into the future.

Professor Principal

3 Kavika 3 years ago

TSMC (Taiwan) is building a $12 billion dollar plant in Phoenix.

Professor Silent

4 mocowgirl 3 years ago

What will the effects be on the environment? Does anyone care how much water and energy are required for these plants and how much toxic waste is released?

The Chip Industry Has a Problem With Its Giant Carbon Footprint - Bloomberg
Information and computing technology is expected to account for as much as 20% of global energy demand by 2030, with hardware responsible for more of that footprint than the operation of a system, they found. “Chip manufacturing, as opposed to hardware use and energy consumption, accounts for most of the carbon output,” the researchers concluded.

As implied by the title of the paper — “Chasing Carbon: The Elusive Environmental Footprint of Computing” — that’s a little-known fact, and an uncomfortable one for governments pushing high-end chip making.
The upshot is that the most advanced chipmakers now have a larger carbon footprint than some traditionally more polluting industries. In 2019, for example, company disclosures show that Intel’s factories used more than three times as much water as Ford Motor Co.’s plants and created more than twice as much hazardous waste.

and

The computer chip industry has a dirty climate secret | Environment | The Guardian
The industry presents a paradox. Meeting global climate goals will, in part, rely on semiconductors. They’re integral to electric vehicles, solar arrays and wind turbines. But chip manufacturing also contributes to the climate crisis. It requires huge amounts of energy and water – a chip fabrication plant, or fab, can use millions of gallons of water a day – and creates hazardous waste.

As the semiconductor industry finds itself increasingly under the spotlight, it is starting to grapple with its climate impacts. Last week Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest chipmaker, which supplies chips to Apple, pledged to reach net zero emissions by 2050 . The company aims to “broaden our green influence and drive the industry towards low-carbon sustainability”, said the TSMC chairman, Mark Lui.

But decarbonizing the industry will be a big challenge.

TSMC alone uses almost 5% of all Taiwan’s electricity, according to figures from Greenpeace, predicted to rise to 7.2% in 2022, and it used about 63m tons of water in 2019. The company’s water use became a controversial topic during Taiwan’s drought this year, the country’s worst in a half century, which pitted chipmakers against farmers .

In the US, a single fab, Intel’s 700-acre campus in Ocotillo, Arizona, produced nearly 15,000 tons of waste in the first three months of this year, about 60% of it hazardous. It also consumed 927m gallons of fresh water, enough to fill about 1,400 Olympic swimming pools, and used 561m kilowatt-hours of energy.
Chip manufacturing, rather than energy consumption or hardware use, “accounts for most of the carbon output” from electronics devices, the Harvard researcher Udit Gupta and co-authors wrote in a 2020 paper.

Professor Principal

4.1 Kavika replied to mocowgirl @4 3 years ago

Based on water usage alone Arizona should be the last place to build a chip plant.

Professor Silent

4.1.1 mocowgirl replied to Kavika @4.1 3 years ago

Based on water usage alone Arizona should be the last place to build a chip plant.

I agree.

There is no end to the contempt that I feel for whomever is approving chip plants (and other infrastructure) without first factoring in the environmental impact.

Freshman Participates

5 Revillug 3 years ago

Semiconductor plants are very expensive to build. They also take a long time to build. So the jobs created by such an investment are likely to stick around for quite some time.

Professor Principal

5.1 Kavika replied to Revillug @5 3 years ago

That is true but building one or more in AZ is simply ignoring the fact that AZ is in a drought and has been for years. The farmers are letting thousands of acres fallow since they do not have the water to grow crops and it's going to get worse when the 7 states can't reach an agreement on sharing Colorado river water the feds are going to do it for them and AZ is going to take a huge hit.

Freshman Participates

5.1.1 Revillug replied to Kavika @5.1 3 years ago

I seem to be missing something here. This story says they are building a plant in Boise. Isn't that in Idaho?

Are you saying that AZ gets its water from Idaho?

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