Chipmaker expects to break ground in 2027 on flagship facility
Micron Technology Inc. announced Aug. 20 plans to break ground next year on a new semiconductor research facility at its Boise, Idaho, campus, expanding a site where the chipmaker is already building two leading-edge memory fabs.
The facility will anchor Micron Research Labs, a planned $10-billion research initiative focused on memory technologies, advanced memory and computing architectures, packaging and future semiconductor manufacturing.
The company says the Boise facility will accommodate hundreds of researchers and the investment—separate from Micron’s broader U.S. expansion program—will fund university collaborations, satellite labs and other partnerships.
“For nearly 50 years, from four people in a Boise basement to America’s memory leader, Micron has pushed the boundaries of what memory can do,” said Scott DeBoer, Micron executive vice president and chief technology and products officer.
“Micron Research Labs gives that legacy a dedicated home for long-horizon innovation, the kind of research that sits upstream of every product we build,” he added.
Micron is locating the new facility alongside an established Boise research operation and an expanding manufacturing complex. Its existing R&D center includes about 250,000 sq ft of cleanroom space, according to federal environmental documents. Micron has previously said placing research and high-volume manufacturing on the same campus is intended to speed the transfer of new memory technologies into production.
That relationship is taking physical shape in the company’s ID1 and ID2 memory fabs. ID1 is expected to begin producing memory chips in mid-2027—the same year Micron plans to start construction of the Research Labs facility—while ID2 is scheduled to follow in late 2028.
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The four-story ID1 fab is designed with a roughly 1.2-million-sq-ft footprint and about 600,000 sq ft of cleanroom space, along with utility and water infrastructure required for semiconductor production, according to a National Institute of Standards and Technology environmental assessment.
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National Institute of Standards and Technology — Draft Environmental Assessment
Boise city records show the scale of building-systems work underway, including a $220-million mechanical, electrical and plumbing package for ID1’s probe building and a separate $149-million package for utility trestles carrying those systems among buildings on the campus. The city says Micron’s multiyear expansion is also contributing to elevated electrical and plumbing permit activity.
Applied Materials President and CEO Gary Dickerson said increasingly complex memory and computing architectures will require advances in materials, manufacturing equipment, process technology and chip packaging.
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“As memory and computing architectures become increasingly complex, advances in new materials, equipment, process technology and chip packaging will play an essential role in turning breakthrough ideas into reality,” Dickerson said.
Micron has not disclosed the Research Labs facility’s size, construction cost or completion schedule. Exyte is construction manager for Micron’s first Boise manufacturing fab, according to prior ENR reporting, but no designer or builder has been identified for the newly announced research facility.
