BOISE, Idaho — Micron Technology, the largest American memory chipmaker, said on Thursday that it plans to invest up to $3 billion to bolster the domestic semiconductor supply chain, directing a sizable chunk of that money toward the raw silicon wafers that serve as the starting material for virtually every advanced chip manufactured in the United States.
The announcement arrived alongside a far larger figure: Micron said it is increasing its total planned US investment to more than $250 billion through 2035, up from the $200 billion the company announced last June, which itself represented a $30 billion increase from its original spending plans. The company attributed the escalation to surging demand for memory chips driven by artificial intelligence workloads and the Trump administration’s push to expand domestic chip production capacity.
Of the $3 billion earmarked for supply chain development, $500 million will go to GlobalWafers Co., a Taiwan-headquartered silicon wafer manufacturer, as strategic financing to advance its 300mm raw silicon wafer facility in Sherman, Texas. The plant, which received $406 million in CHIPS Act funding and held its grand opening last year, produces the semiconductor-grade wafers on which all advanced chips are built. GlobalWafers has already invested $7.5 billion in the Sherman campus across multiple phases.
The two companies will also enter a 10-year supply agreement securing significant raw silicon wafer capacity for Micron’s long-term manufacturing plans, a deal that reduces one of the chipmaker’s key vulnerabilities. Roughly 90 percent of the world’s silicon wafers are currently sourced from East Asia, a concentration that has drawn increasing scrutiny from American policymakers seeking to insulate the domestic chip industry from geopolitical disruption.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said the investment strengthens American competitiveness in a sector vital to the economy. “Micron’s pledge of $3 billion to strengthen the U.S. semiconductor supply chain and expand domestic manufacturing capabilities is making the United States stronger,” Lutnick said in a statement accompanying the announcement.
Micron’s chief executive, Sanjay Mehrotra, tied the spending to a broader national ambition. “As America celebrates its 250th anniversary, data and memory are foundational to the modern economy, and Micron is increasing our U.S. investments to more than $250 billion through 2035 to meet that moment,” Mehrotra said, thanking President Donald Trump, Lutnick, and state officials for their support.
The $3 billion supply chain commitment is one piece of a sprawling domestic manufacturing push. Micron celebrated the first concrete pour at its Clay, New York fabrication campus on Thursday, reaching the milestone more than a quarter ahead of its original schedule. The Clay site, which will eventually house up to four fabrication plants, is being built as the largest semiconductor manufacturing facility in US history. Micron expects first wafer output from its Idaho fabs in mid-2027 and late 2028, and the company launched initial production of its 1-alpha DDR4 technology in Virginia earlier this year for automotive, industrial, and defense applications.
Across all sites, Micron’s investments are expected to create more than 90,000 direct and indirect jobs and support the company’s long-term goal of producing 40 percent of its DRAM output in the United States. The company currently employs about 54,000 people globally and is a leading producer of DRAM, NAND, and NOR memory technologies used in everything from data centers and smartphones to automobiles and AI training systems.
The spending also reflects the scale of the financial support flowing from Washington. Micron has secured up to $6.4 billion in federal awards through the CHIPS and Science Act, including a finalized $275 million allocation for its Virginia operations. The legislation, signed by former President Joe Biden in 2022, has become a cornerstone of American industrial policy even as the Trump administration has rebranded the program under its US Investment Accelerator initiative.
Micron shares rose more than 6 percent in premarket trading on Thursday. The stock has climbed sharply over the past year as AI-driven memory demand has broken industry records, with Samsung Electronics posting a $58 billion quarter earlier this week on the same tailwind. Analysts at UBS have projected DDR memory prices rising 32 percent quarter over quarter in the third quarter of 2026, a pricing environment that has made capital-intensive manufacturing bets like Micron’s considerably easier to justify to investors.
The company’s appetite for new capacity extends well beyond American borders. Micron broke ground on a $9.3 billion fab in Hiroshima, Japan last week to produce high-bandwidth memory chips, with the Japanese government covering roughly a third of the cost. Taken together, the US and Japan expansions represent a company that is simultaneously racing to catch SK Hynix in the AI memory market and to build the supply chain resilience that its largest government customers now demand.
Beyond its partnership with GlobalWafers, Micron said the two companies intend to explore collaboration on next-generation wafer technologies and process innovations to support future semiconductor manufacturing requirements. The remaining $2.5 billion of the supply chain investment will target other suppliers, ecosystem partners, and infrastructure aligned with Micron’s expanding US fabrication footprint, though the company did not identify specific recipients.
The announcement also included a $250 million commitment for what Micron called its Trump Accounts program, offering seed deposits for eligible children in communities where the company operates, alongside more than $50 million directed toward workforce development, STEM education, housing, and transportation in Central New York.
