Micron to Buy Taiwan Plant for $1.8 Billion as Demand for Memory Surges

By Jiahui Huang and Fabiana Negrin Ochoa

Micron Technology is planning to buy a Taiwanese chip-making site for $1.8 billion as the U.S. company looks to meet surging demand for memory-storage products.

The artificial intelligence boom has sent memory prices soaring and has squeezed supply of an instrumental piece of virtually all electronics--an imbalance analysts say could have repercussions for a broad range of industries.

Counterpoint Research estimates that memory prices skyrocketed 50% in the final quarter of last year, and will keep rising this year, squeezing margins for makers of PCs, smartphones and other consumer goods.

Micron in December raised its outlook for demand growth for two of its main products, saying that supply isn't keeping up with demand as AI developers scramble for memory-storage capacity.

On Saturday, the Boise, Idaho-based company said it has signed a letter of intent to acquire an advanced semiconductor manufacturing fabrication site from Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp, a major foundry in Taiwan.

The acquisition of the plant, located in Taiwan's Miaoli County, for $1.8 billion in cash will further position Micron to address growing global demand for memory solutions, the company said in a release.

The acquisition includes an existing 300mm fab cleanroom of 300,000 square feet, the statement said. Micron and PSMC are also establishing a long-term relationship for Micron's post-wafer assembly processing and to support PSMC in its portfolio.

The deal is planned to be completed by the second quarter this year, pending closure of deal agreements and regulatory approvals, the company said.

Micron will then assume ownership and control of the P5 chipmaking plant in Taiwan, and equip the site to produce dynamic random-access memory chips, known as DRAM, in phases. The company expects the facility to start contributing meaningful DRAM wafer output in the second half of 2027, the statement added.

PSMC's shares rose 9.9% to 62.00 New Taiwan dollars in afternoon trading on Monday.

The ongoing chip shortage is caused by the strong demand for high bandwidth memory chips, used for AI data centers, Makoto Tsuchiya, Senior Economist at the Oxford Economics said in a recent report. Since chipmakers have shifted production capacity toward these more advanced chips with higher margins, production capacity for traditional memory chips used for everything from PCs and smartphones to other electronic devices is dwindling, the economist added.

Memory chip prices are likely to continue rising this year, he added.

Write to Jiahui Huang at jiahui.huang@wsj.com and Fabiana Negrin Ochoa at fabiana.negrinochoa@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 19, 2026 01:34 ET (06:34 GMT)