Bidirectional Empowerment! Micron Acquires PSMC’s Taiwan Wafer Fab, Reshapes Memory Landscape with Advanced Process Licensing and Packaging Cooperation

According to the latest in-depth DRAM industry research report released by TrendForce, global memory giant Micron (Micron Technology) has officially disclosed plans to acquire PSMC's (Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation) dedicated facility located in Tongluo, Miaoli County, Taiwan, for USD 1.8 billion in cash (the transaction excludes production-related machinery and equipment). Simultaneously, both parties have reached a long-term strategic cooperation agreement, focusing on deep collaboration in advanced DRAM packaging foundry services. This cross-industry partnership will not only enable Micron to quickly supplement advanced-process DRAM production capacity but will also help PSMC upgrade the supply scale and technological level of its mature-process DRAM. TrendForce clearly anticipates a substantive upward revision in the overall supply expectations of the global DRAM industry by 2027.

Looking back at the industry context of this acquisition, since the second half of 2025, the global semiconductor industry has experienced a structural demand surge: technological advancements in the ASIC (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit) field and the large-scale deployment of AI inference scenarios have driven strong demand for HBM3e (High Bandwidth Memory version 3e) and DDR5 (Double Data Rate 5) memory, respectively. The growth in these two market segments has directly led to a significant improvement in the overall profitability of the DRAM industry, which has also become the core driver behind Micron's accelerated capacity expansion strategy. In terms of the transaction details, the Tongluo fab acquired by Micron includes the complete land, main buildings, and high-standard cleanroom facilities, eliminating the need to start infrastructure projects from scratch and significantly shortening the capacity ramp-up cycle. According to the plan, Micron will gradually relocate existing mature equipment and newly ordered production machinery to the facility between 2026 and 2027, with a focus on deploying advanced front-end DRAM process equipment. Mass production is expected to officially commence in 2027. Based on TrendForce's calculations, the capacity released by the first phase of the Tongluo fab in the second half of 2027 will exceed 10% of Micron's global DRAM production capacity in Q4 2026, becoming a key addition to address the high-performance memory demand gap.

From the perspective of Micron's global capacity deployment strategy, this acquisition is not an isolated action but a crucial part of its accelerated capacity expansion. Data shows that in Q3 2025, Micron's revenue share in the global DRAM industry reached 25.7%, ranking third in the sector, though still trailing the leading players by a certain margin. Since the full-scale rise of the AI industry boom in 2024, market demand for advanced-process DRAM products such as HBM, DDR5, and LPDDR5X has continued to surge significantly. To seize market opportunities, Micron has adopted a dual-track capacity expansion model of "self-construction + acquisition." On one hand, it continues to advance construction projects for its ID1 fab in the United States and HBM backend packaging capacity in Singapore; on the other hand, it actively shortens capacity setup timelines by acquiring mature facilities, having previously acquired two AUO (AU Optronics) fabs in Tainan, the AUO Crystal fab in Taichung, and the Glorytek fab in Taichung to supplement capacity in key areas such as wafer probe, metallization, and HBM TSV (Through-Silicon Via) technology. Additionally, Micron plans to technologically convert part of its Singapore NAND Flash cleanrooms into DRAM metallization lines, further optimizing its capacity structure.

For PSMC, this cooperation also holds strategic transformation significance. Currently, PSMC's existing DRAM capacity primarily uses relatively mature process technologies such as 25nm and 38nm. Limited by technological bottlenecks, its DDR4 memory production lines can only focus on small-capacity products, gradually constraining its competitiveness in the consumer DRAM market. After signing the letter of intent with Micron, PSMC will gain key technological empowerment: it is expected to formally obtain Micron's 1Y nm process license within the next year and, depending on the progress of cooperation, may further secure the advanced 1Z nm process license. With this technological breakthrough, PSMC will be able to significantly enhance the storage capacity of its DDR4 products, not only solidifying its process competitiveness in the Consumer DRAM market but also effectively expanding its bit output scale. Moreover, as its product positioning differs from Micron's advanced product lines, no direct market competition will arise, achieving complementary advantages for both parties.

TrendForce emphasizes that the cooperation between Micron and PSMC is essentially a microcosm of the global memory industry trend of "capacity optimization + technological complementarity." With the continuous penetration of downstream applications such as AI and cloud computing, the structural differentiation in DRAM market demand will become increasingly pronounced, and the market space for both advanced and mature process products will expand simultaneously. After the completion of this acquisition, Micron's high-end DRAM capacity will be rapidly supplemented, while PSMC will achieve industrial upgrading through technology licensing. The synergistic effects between the two parties are expected to further reshape the global DRAM industry's supply landscape, and the release of the Tongluo fab's capacity in 2027 will also provide crucial support in alleviating the global imbalance between supply and demand for high-performance memory.