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Taiwan’s Powerchip is suddenly in the spotlight, after Micron announced its moving to buy one of its chip plants.
What’s happening: Micron has signed a letter of intent to acquire Powerchip’s P5 fabrication site in Tongluo, Miaoli County, for $1.8 billion in cash.
In simple terms, Micron is paying big money to get its hands on ready-to-run manufacturing space, because building chip capacity from scratch takes years.
Powerchip is one of Taiwan’s key semiconductor foundries, known for making legacy chips (older, widely used chips) as well as memory chips.
For Micron, the prize is clear: more room to make DRAM, the memory used in everything from laptops and servers to smartphones.
Micron says the deal should start boosting its DRAM wafer output from the second half of 2027. The site brings roughly 300,000 square feet of cleanroom space, the ultra-sterile environment required to produce chips.
This purchase is also part of Micron’s larger growth push worldwide. While much of its manufacturing footprint is still in Asia, the company is also expanding in the US.
