Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) has announced its intention to contribute up to 46.5 billion yen (US$321 million) to support the production of Micron Technology’s most advanced DRAM memory chips in Hiroshima.
The subsidy, announced on September 30, should boost the competitiveness of both Micron and Japan’s semiconductor industry vis-à-vis South Korea’s Samsung and SK hynix, and strengthen the US-Japan technology alliance.
Micron is the world’s third-largest maker of DRAM – an acronym for dynamic random-access memory – with 23% of the global market in 2021, according to IC Insights.
Market leader Samsung Electronics had 44% while its Korean rival SK hynix had 28%. Most of the remaining share was held by Nanya and other Taiwanese companies; China’s ChangXin Memory had less than 2%.