Analysis: Micron's US Investments in Taiwan
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te met with US chipmaker Micron's CEO Sanjay Mehrotra. Lai pointed to Micron's ventures in Taiwan as evidence that investment between Taiwan and the US is mutual, as he tries to garner support for the new trade deal. Lily LaMattina spoke to Marco Mezger of Neumonda Technology Group about what Micron's investments mean for Taiwan.
Micron’s Investment in Taiwan: Scale and Significance
REPORTER:
President Lai and Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra recently met at the Presidential Office. Lai said Micron's investment in Taiwan is "the best proof of Taiwan-US cooperation." Why is Micron so important to Taiwan?
Micron is today the largest foreign employer in Taiwan. So if you look the workforce for Micron in Taiwan, I think it's probably around about 12,000 right now. Um, and that's quite significant. This is growing. Some of their newest technology is here, uh, for advanced packaging for HBM. Uh, a lot of their team is here who's supporting for the, uh, AI supply chain. So I think in this regards, this is nothing which is driven by all the current geopolitical movement. This is really driven because of the technology infrastructure. And when TSMC is very strong on logic, they also need memory. And there is micron, probably the biggest one in Taiwan right now.
REPORTER:
The new US trade deal significantly increased Taiwanese investment in the US, especially TSMC’s. As the Taiwan government tries to garner support for the deal, it’s using Micron to show investment between the US and Taiwan is mutual. Is Micron’s investment in Taiwan comparable to TSMC’s investment in the US?
I would not say because I think the investment from micron is commercially driven and the investment from TSMC is because of policy driven. So I understand also that Taiwan is providing also some subsidy support to micron.
Micron is going because of the business. So it's pretty clear it's because of the ecosystem you have in Taiwan. Um, this is very important for a memory company to be here. Uh, you have also other memory companies with own fabs in Taiwan, which is Winbond, which is Nanya, and which is also Power Chip.
And if you look, for example for TSMC, TSMC is investing. I mean, the numbers are minimum 165 billion up to some people say to 300 billion if everything comes into place. So micron probably at the moment invests, I would say since the last couple of years and looking forward probably 1 trillion NTD. So like 30 billion. 35 billion. So that's also like a completely different level.
REPORTER:
Are there other US companies that are also making significant investments in Taiwan?
You have American companies like Lam Research, KLA. And they also did already significant investments here.
But also for example Nvidia. I mean they do in Shilin in Taipei City, where they will have a new company headquarter for the region. You have AMD. But also you have the hyperscalers who come here, right? You have Google for example here, you have Amazon here. And I'm telling you it was a very, very smart move. You know yes, Taiwan is like semiconductor hub, and it's very important. And other companies and regions want to do this. But now becoming like an AI supply chain hub where you have different stacks, you have technology, you have design, you have manufacturing, you have, for example, companies like Wistron compile who are basically building servers. So you have like a high value ecosystem for AI.
