Micron breaks ground on ¥1.5 trn Hiroshima AI memory plant

Micron Technology has broken ground on a major expansion of its semiconductor manufacturing facility in Hiroshima, Japan, a project valued at approximately 1.5 trillion yen, or $9.3 billion, to boost production of advanced memory chips for artificial intelligence. The U.S.-based company held the groundbreaking ceremony on Saturday, July 4, 2026, with commercial shipments from the expanded plant expected to begin around the summer of 2028.

The expansion will focus on manufacturing high-bandwidth memory, a critical component stacked next to graphics processing units in AI accelerators like those from Nvidia. Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra noted the symbolic importance of the Hiroshima site, stating that the company's very first HBM production wafer was manufactured there. He described the project as a fusion of American innovation and Japanese manufacturing expertise.

Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry has committed up to 500 billion yen in subsidies toward the project's capital costs. Combined with previously pledged research and development support, total Japanese government backing for Micron's operations now amounts to roughly 775 billion yen, covering close to half...