Nasdaq-listed semiconductor company Micron Technology Inc is well-known in the IT industry for its Micron, Crucial and Ballistix branded memory and storage products.
It has committed to buying a 52-acre plot of land at the Batu Kawan Industrial Park, where it intends to build its “SSD centre of excellence” to assemble and test its products.
SSDs are hard disk drives comprising flash memories instead of the moving parts found in hard disks. They are faster than regular hard disks and more expensive.
Micron backend operations senior vice-president Gursharan Singh, who announced the company’s investment in Penang today, said it chose Penang due to its high-quality talent pool and pro-business environment.
“The new greenfield location in Penang for SSD manufacturing will enhance our NAND Centre of Excellence in Southeast Asia, building on our existing presence in Malaysia and Singapore.
“The new location will benefit from its close proximity to Micron’s Singapore NAND Centre of Excellence, whose team will help accelerate and support the facility ramp-up in Penang,” he said in a press conference with Penang government officials in Komtar.
Gursharan said the company’s investment would also see cooperation with local universities for research and development opportunities.
He said Micron had over US$30 billion in sales over the past three years and was the fourth largest memory and storage manufacturer in the world and the second largest in the US.
He said since Micron’s inception in 1978, it had contributed over 40,000 patents under its name.
He later signed an agreement with Penang Development Corporation general manager Rosli Jaafar to purchase the Batu Kawan Industrial Park land to build Micron’s SSD plant.
Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the investment by Micron was most welcome, as the state continues to leverage on its position as the Silicon Valley of Asia and the country’s top IT manufacturing hub.
“We welcome Micron, a Fortune 500 company, to our family in Penang,” he said.
According to the Malaysian Investment Development Authority, Penang recorded the highest foreign-direct investment inflow last year at RM8.5 billion.
In the manufacturing sector, the state was ranked second with RM10.8 billion in manufacturing investment. The US forms the largest FDI contributor to Penang’s economy.