As artificial intelligence (AI) technology expands from cloud servers to consumer devices, the demand for AI continues to grow. Micron Technology has fully allocated its high bandwidth memory (HBM) production capacity to 2025. Donghui Lu, vice president of the company and head of Meguiar Taiwan, China, said that Meguiar was taking advantage of the surge in AI demand and expected to improve its performance in 2025.
Donghui Lu emphasized that the emergence of large-scale language models has created unprecedented demands for memory and storage solutions. As one of the world's largest storage manufacturers, Micron is fully capable of leveraging this growth. He believes that despite the recent surge in AI investment, mainly focused on building new data centers to support big language models, this infrastructure is still under construction and will take several years to fully develop.
Micron Technology predicts that the next wave of AI growth will come from integrating AI into consumer devices such as smartphones and personal computers. This transformation will require a significant increase in storage capacity to support AI applications. Donghui Lu introduced that HBM involves advanced packaging technology, which combines front-end (wafer manufacturing) and back-end (packaging and testing) process elements, bringing new challenges to the industry.
In the fiercely competitive storage industry, the speed at which companies develop and improve new products is crucial. Donghui Lu explained that HBM production may erode traditional memory production, as each HBM chip requires multiple traditional memory chips, which may put pressure on the entire industry's production capacity. He pointed out that the delicate balance between supply and demand in the memory industry is a major issue, and warned that overproduction may lead to price wars and industry decline.
Donghui Lu emphasized the role of Taiwan, China in Meguiar's AI business. The company's important R&D team and manufacturing facilities in Taiwan, China are crucial to the development and production of HBM3E. Micron HBM3E products are typically integrated with TSMC's CoWoS technology, and this close collaboration provides significant advantages.
Recognizing the importance of EUV technology in improving the performance and density of storage chips, Micron has decided to postpone its adoption at nodes 1 α and 1 β, prioritizing performance and cost-effectiveness. Donghui Lu emphasized the high cost and complexity of EUV equipment, as well as the significant changes that need to be made in the manufacturing process to adapt to it. Micron's main goal is to produce high-performance storage products at competitive costs. He stated that delaying the adoption of EUV would enable them to achieve this goal more effectively.
Micron has always stated that its 8-layer and 12 layer HBM3E have a 30% lower power consumption than its competitors' products. The company plans to use EUV 1 γ node for large-scale production in Taiwan, China, China in 2025. In addition, Micron also plans to introduce EUV at its Hiroshima factory in Japan, although later.
