S$9.5 billion new Micron facility in Woodlands to create up to 3,000 jobs

American tech giant Micron Technology has broken ground for its S$9.5 billion (US$7 billion) high-bandwidth memory (HBM) packaging facility in Woodlands.

The facility will be the first plant in Singapore to produce advanced semiconductors for artificial intelligence (AI) applications when operations are slated to start in 2026.

Jobs to be created

Around 1,400 new jobs will be created initially, before scaling up to 3,000 positions as expansion plans unfold, said chief executive and president Sanjay Mehrotra, according to Micron.

The expansion of packaging capacity begins in 2027.

It currently employs around 9,000 people in Singapore.

Micron's corporate vice-president and Singapore country manager Chen Kok Sing said the company has invested more than US$30 billion (S$41.1 billion) since it set up here in 1998, The Straits Times reported.

This includes establishing greenfield chip wafer fabrication sites and expanding facilities.

What are high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips?

HBM chips are made by stacking several layers of memory chips.

It creates one chip that stores more data, speeds up processing and consumes less power.

The chips enable graphics cards and accelerators like those produced by Nvidia and AMD to process generative AI workloads at data centres.

This market is predicted to grow from around US$4 billion (S$5.5 billion) in 2023 to more than US$100 billion (S$137 billion) by 2030, according to Mehrotra.

Singapore could account for one in 10 chips and one in five pieces of semiconductor equipment produced globally, given its position as a critical node in the semiconductor supply chain, ST reported.

Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong, who is also Trade and Industry Minister, said at the groundbreaking ceremony that Micron’s HBM plant will allow Singapore to establish a foothold in the fast-growing AI space, according to ST.

He added that a skilled talent pool, innovation and research capabilities, and a pro-business environment are Singapore’s value propositions, which lie in strong and enduring fundamentals.

Top photo via Micron