Taiwan, U.S. look to expand AI chip lead with Micron support: Lai

Taipei, Jan. 29 (CNA) President Lai Ching-te (賴清德) said Thursday that Taiwan and the United States will work together to expand their global lead in artificial intelligence (AI) chips, highlighting the role of U.S. memory maker Micron Technology Inc. in the effort.

In remarks welcoming Micron Chairman, President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra at the Presidential Office in Taipei, Lai said the company has operated in Taiwan for more than 30 years, investing over NT$1.2 trillion and employing tens of thousands of engineers.

He called Micron's investment the best example of Taiwan-U.S. cooperation. As one of the country's largest foreign investors, it has created jobs and strengthened the semiconductor industry, and the government's support for the company will continue uninterrupted.

At the end of last year, Micron received a new round of subsidies under the Ministry of Economic Affairs' A+ Industrial Innovative R&D Program, which will support additional investment in Taiwan over the next three years and accelerate development and production of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), Lai said.

Microchips and memory are both essential in the AI era. With Micron's support, Taiwan will expand advanced HBM production and help the company stay competitive, reinforcing the global lead of Taiwan-U.S. AI chips, Lai added.

Lai said he looks forward to Micron continuing to set new milestones in Taiwan, working alongside the country to strengthen critical memory technologies for AI infrastructure and build a more resilient and competitive supply chain for a win-win future.

Last week, Taiwan's Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. (PSMC) announced it had signed an exclusive letter of intent (LOI) with Micron to sell its P5 fab in Tongluo, Miaoli County, for US$1.8 billion.

Under the LOI, Micron will establish a long-term foundry partnership with PSMC for advanced DRAM packaging wafer manufacturing and assist the company in strengthening its specialty DRAM processes, in a move that positions the U.S. firm to compete more directly with memory giants Hynix and Samsung.

In recent years, Micron has also expanded its presence in Taiwan through the acquisitions of AUO Corp. production plants in Tainan and Taichung.

Separately on Thursday, TrendForce industry analyst Wang Yu-chi (王豫琪) said that in the HBM market, SK Hynix remains the leader, while Micron's relatively smaller capacity makes it difficult to shift significant production to HBM amid widespread memory shortages, meaning the market landscape is unlikely to change in the short term.