Micron Technology Inc., the U.S. memory chip maker, will add 2,000 employees and set up a research and development (R&D) corridor in Taiwan, the Central News Agency reported on Friday.
Micron has invested in Taiwan for more than two decades and is its largest foreign investor, Micron Taiwan’s head Lu Donghui told reporters, the agency said.
Lu joined Micron in February and met with the press for the first time on Friday, CNA said. “However, he did not provide any further details about Micron’s investment plan in Taiwan,” CNA said.
Micron has more than 10,000 employees in Taiwan and operates two factories for making dynamic random access memory chips in Taoyuan and Taichung with another backend factory in Taichung, CNA said. (See details here.) The company purchased shares it didn’t own in Taiwan memory-chip maker Inotera for approximately $4 billion in 2016.
Taiwan is one of the world’s top sources of the semiconductors. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., or TSMC, one of the world’s most valuable semiconductor manufacturers, on Friday said sales in May soared by 65.3% from a year earlier to a monthly record NT$185.7 billion. TSMC’s former long-time leader and chairman Morris Chang, an American citizen, has an estimated fortune worth $2.4 billion on the Forbes Real-Time Billionaires List today. (See related post here.)
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Employees work in the lobby of TSMC’s headquarters in Hsinchu earlier this year. Photographer: I-Hwa … [+]
Taiwan technology companies that rank on the Forbes Global 2000list of the world’s top publicly traded companies include Hon Hai Precision — the big supplier to Apple led by billionaire Terry Gou, as well as TSMC, which makes computer chips for Intel. Others among Taiwan’s numerous Apple suppliers include Pegatron, Lite-On Technology, Inventec, Catcher Technology, Largan Precision and Compeq Manufacturing.
Micron’s shares plunged 5.1% to their lowest level in a year and a half on Friday in Nasdaq trading amid worries that roaring U.S. inflation, now its highest in four decades, will ultimately lead to slower economic growth and reduce demand for electronics products such as PCs. TSMC’s New York-traded shares lost 2.4%.
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