Micron to invest $3.7 billion in Japan for new DRAM chips

Micron Technology Inc. plans to invest up to 500 billion yen ($3.7 billion) in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology over the next few years with support from the Japanese government.

The latest extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) chipmaking machines will be used to manufacture 1-gamma chips, which can be used to mass-production of materials required in complex applications such as imaging networks.

Micron will be the first semiconductor company to bring EUV technology to Japan for production, the company said, adding that it expects to ramp up EUV production at the 1-gamma node in Taiwan and Japan from 2025.

The announcement comes after the US memory chip maker began mass production of its new high-capacity, low-power Beta 1 Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) chips at its Hiroshima plant last year.

DRAM chips are memory chips that lose memory when the power is turned off.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he expects additional investment from global chipmakers in Japan after meeting top executives on Thursday ahead of the G7 summit.

Speaking to reporters after meeting with executives including officials from Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp., Kishida said the G7 leaders will discuss stabilizing supply chains at their talks in Hiroshima.

Executives from Micron Technology Inc, IBM Corp., Applied Materials, and Samsung Electronics, among others, also met with Kishida.

Japan has struggled to reinvigorate the chip sector, whose global market share has fallen to about 10% from about 50% in the late 1980s, while the United States is increasingly urging its allies to work together to counter China's advanced technology and chip development.

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