US chipmaker Micron Technology. [Reuters]
US chipmaker Micron Technology. [Reuters]

Micron announced a massive US investment plan just one day before SK hynix is set to list its American depositary receipts on the Nasdaq. The move is widely seen as a bid to check a rival in the memory chip sector, including in high-bandwidth memory.

Micron said Thursday it would expand its US investment in semiconductor fabrication plants and technology to more than $250 billion by 2035, responding to surging memory chip demand in the AI era.

The investment covers the cost of a fab under construction in Clay, New York, as well as fab expansion costs in Idaho, Virginia and other states.

Micron added that it had completed the first concrete pour at its New York fab more than a quarter ahead of schedule. The company said the investment supports its goal of producing 40 percent of its DRAM output in the United States, and expects the effort to create more than 90,000 jobs across the country.

The Trump administration has pledged to manufacture 40 percent of the world's semiconductors domestically by the end of its term, and Micron has aligned itself with that goal by committing to produce 40 percent of its DRAM in the US.

Micron also plans to invest up to $3 billion to strengthen the US semiconductor supply chain. Of that, $500 million will go toward expanding a wafer manufacturing facility in Texas operated by Taiwanese firm GlobalWafers, with a 10-year supply agreement to be signed.

"As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, data and memory have become the cornerstones of the modern economy," CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said. "To keep pace with this era, we are expanding our US investment to more than $250 billion by 2035."

Micron had originally planned to invest $170 billion in the US, but raised that figure to $200 billion last June — after the Trump administration took office — citing surging demand for high-bandwidth memory chips. It has now added another $50 billion to that commitment.

The latest investment is widely interpreted as an effort to align with the Trump administration's policy drive to revive the US semiconductor industry.

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick attended the concrete-pouring ceremony at the New York fab, presided over by CEO Mehrotra, and said: "President Trump has made clear that America is where you need to do business, and the world is responding quickly. The Trump economic model makes clear there has never been a better time to invest in America."

The announcement is also seen as a move to check a competitor: SK hynix is set to list its ADRs on the Nasdaq on Friday, and Micron's timing — as a rival in the same memory chip space — is widely read as a competitive signal. SK hynix plans to raise approximately $26.5 billion through the listing.

Meanwhile, Micron's share price surged more than 6 percent following the investment announcement and was trading up more than 7 percent from the previous close, hovering around $1,020, as of 1:10 p.m. Eastern time.

Other semiconductor-related stocks also rallied, with Applied Materials, KLA, Lam Research and Arm rising between 6 and 11 percent.


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