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Micron has broken ground on a new memory fabrication facility in Singapore, which it claims will “address growing market demand for NAND technology”. There’s only one snag: it won’t be ready until late 2028.
The tech industry is being rocked by a shortage of memory because of huge demand for chips from the AI industry. Memory makers have switched production from the memory and storage chips used by PCs to the more lucrative HBM memory that’s in demand from the AI industry.
That has already led to sharp increases in component prices, with PC manufacturers forced to put up prices, and IDC analysts warning that some PC makers may not survive the crisis.
HBM stands for high-bandwidth memory, which is also designed to be far more power-efficient than traditional DDR (double data rate) memory.
Micron’s new advanced wafer fabrication facility is an expansion of its existing manufacturing complex in Singapore. The company says it will provide 700,000 sq ft of clean room space when it finally opens in the second half of 2028.
The company had previously announced it was building a HBM packaging facility at the same site, which is scheduled to come online in 2027.
Rival manufacturers are ramping up facilities, too, but concentrating on HBM. SK Hynix recently announced it was bringing forward the opening of a new plant in South Korea by three months to meet the surging demand for HBM, with that now expected to open in February 2027.
Samsung is reportedly ready to start HBM4 production as early as next month, but isn’t building new facilities, merely converting existing lines for the more in-demand HBM.
All of this means there’s no swift end in sight for the memory crisis. Most analysts are predicting that DRAM prices will continue to rise through this year and well into 2027.
The only possible salvation might be the occurrence of the much talked about AI bubble bursting. If AI investment were to dry up and companies stopped building new data centres, memory manufacturers may return to regular DRAM production, easing the supply chain.
Senior industry figures have again this week talked up the possibility of the AI bubble bursting. Cisco boss Chuck Norris told the BBC that the AI industry is “probably” in a bubble, but that “we had a bubble in 2000 with the internet and look where we are today”.
“The winners emerge and there’s carnage along the way, but it is going to be bigger than the internet,” Norris added.
That followed similar comments from Google DeepMind chief Sir Dennis Hassabis, who warned that “multibillion-dollar seed rounds in new startups that don’t have a product or technology or anything yet do seem a little bit unsustainable,” at the Davos World Economic forum, according to a report in the FT.
