TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — U.S. memory chipmaker Micron opened a new facility in Taichung on Monday (Nov. 6) to develop advanced dynamic random access memory (DRAM) technologies to meet the growing demand for AI applications.

Speaking at the opening of the new Taichung advanced production and test facility, Micron President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said his company will continue to invest in Taiwan, according to Nikkei Asia. Micron said the new plant will bolster its global production and assembly network across Taiwan, Singapore, China, and Malaysia, while also accelerating the deployment of DRAM technology, CNA reported.

The new plant will play a crucial role for Micron in the expansion of its high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips, where several DRAM chips are stacked together for fast data transmission, Nikkei Asia said. Cutting-edge DRAM and HBM chips are important for generative AI computing applications.

“AI products require significantly more capacity and complexity of memory,” Nikkei Asia cited Mehrotra as saying. “AI memory is really critical for the AI revolution, and I’m so proud that Micron Taiwan is at the heart of that AI revolution.”

Micron added it has begun mass production of its most advanced 1-beta generation DRAM at its Japan facility in Hiroshima at the end of last year, and plans to move part of this chip production to Taiwan, per Nikkei Asia.

Meanwhile, Taiwan will be the first location to produce Micron’s next-generation 1-gamma DRAM node, the company’s first memory chips to use extreme ultraviolet (EUV) technology in 2025, Liu Dong-hui (盧東暉), head of Micron Taiwan said.

The U.S. chipmaker has invested US$30 billion (NT$967 billion) in Taiwan over the past 10 years and is the company’s largest DRAM chip production base, Nikkei Asia said. It employs over 10,000 people at its Taiwan facilities, according to CNA.