Micron will reportedly finish construction of its A3 plant in Taiwan in the fourth quarter of 2020. Focus Taiwan reported that Micron plans to spend $12.7 billion to build two new wafer plants, A3 and A5, in central Taiwan so it can increase production of next-generation DRAM products.
The company was said to have pushed back a bit against that report. A3 will be devoted to expanding its clean room capacity, the Micron Taiwan subsidiary told Focus Taiwan, and "upgrading its technologies." The company also denied plans for an A5 plant altogether, though it reportedly said "it would continue to seek land for further investments in Taiwan to fulfill its economic responsibility as a major semiconductor firm here."We've reached out to Micron for an official statement regarding the progress of the A3 plant's construction and its plans for Taiwan. But it wouldn't surprise us if the plans to increase wafer production were tentative--the DRAM market has been declining quarter after quarter because supply has outpaced demand. It wouldn't make sense for Micron to increase wafer production when the entire DRAM market is already suffering from oversupply.
The DRAM market can't just sit idly because of falling prices, though, so it makes sense for Micron to devote the A3 plant to "upgrading its technologies." The company expanded the F10 plant in Singapore earlier this month to make room for the additional equipment (including the same clean room space mentioned in Focus Taiwan's report) 3D NAND requires. That additional space is supposed to let Micron keep its total wafer output steady.
We'll update this post if Micron offers more information about the A3 plant and its plans for expansion in Taiwan. For now it seems like the main question about the A3 plant is its purpose, not the timeline on which it will be built, so we wouldn't be surprised if it's set to be finished by the end of 2020.
