The U.S. Joe Biden administration announced on the 25th that it would provide $6.14 billion (approximately 8.45 trillion won) in subsidies to Micron, the largest memory semiconductor company in the United States, to establish a semiconductor factory. In addition, it was decided to receive a loan of up to $7.5 billion, resulting in a total of $13.64 billion in support. President Biden is scheduled to visit Syracuse, New York, where Micron is building a new factory, and announce this support plan.
The U.S. government announced subsidies to Micron through a White House press briefing the day before and also disclosed Micron’s decision to invest a total of $125 billion over the next 20 years. Micron decided to build two state-of-the-art memory factories in Syracuse, upstate New York, and expand its existing R&D (research and development) plant in Idaho. The White House announced, “The R&D center in Idaho will begin operating in 2026, and semiconductor production will also begin operating at two factories in New York from 2028 to 2029.” The White House said Micron’s investment is expected to create more than 70,000 jobs.
Regarding the decision to pay support to Micron, the White House said, “Micron’s investment in the United States, including the establishment of a factory, will be able to bring back to the United States the edge in cutting-edge memory chip technology that has been dominated by foreign companies for decades,” adding, “President Biden’s vision.” “We expect that this will open a new chapter in U.S. semiconductor leadership.” This was interpreted to mean that the ‘Semiconductor Rise’ plan to bring the technology and facilities of the world’s leading semiconductor companies to the U.S. mainland is proceeding as planned.
Micron is the only U.S. semiconductor company that supplies DRAM. In the 1990s, when Japanese and Korean semiconductor companies engaged in a low-price war, American companies such as Intel and Texas Instruments stopped producing DRAM. Currently, most of Micron’s production takes place in Japan and Singapore. However, the White House said that Micron will produce DRAM at the two plants being built this time.
At the briefing on this day, Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer, whose district includes New York, where Micron is building a factory, made the first speech. “Memory chips are essential to the advancement of innovative technologies such as mobile phones, automobiles, defense technology, and especially artificial intelligence (AI),” he said. “We are witnessing AI revolutionizing the world and growing at an unprecedented rate.” did. He continued, “We cannot allow these chips to be produced overseas, especially in competing countries like China,” and added, “Thanks to Micron’s decision to produce chips in the United States, the United States will be economically safer and our national security will be stronger.” Leader Schumer, the number one figure in the Senate, is the person who drafted the framework for the Semiconductor Support Act enacted by the Biden administration in 2022. Even at the age of 73, he has met with more than 100 AI experts and gained knowledge, taking the lead in preparing AI legislation at the congressional level.
The U.S. Department of Commerce said in a press release, “Each (New York State) plant will have 600,000 square feet of clean room space (clean space for semiconductor production), and a total of 2.4 million square feet of clean room space will be secured across the four facilities.” “This is the largest clean room space announced in the U.S. and is equivalent to the size of 40 soccer fields.”
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