Air Liquide has announced plans to construct a new industrial gas production facility in the US to serve Micron Technology's new fab. Under a long-term contract, the plant will produce significant volumes of high-purity industrial gases for memory chip manufacture.
Air Liquide will invest over US$250 million in a cutting-edge production facility in Idaho, producing ultra-pure nitrogen and other gases for Micron and other customers. This investment will create hundreds of direct and indirect jobs in Idaho during development and operation, with the plant expected to be operational by the end of 2025, according to the France-based company that specializes in industrial gases and services for diverse industries.
"Micron's investments will propel US supply chain resilience given memory is produced at a much larger size and scale than other segments of the semiconductor industry," said Scott Gatzemeier, corporate VP of front-end US expansion at Micron. "As the company builds its fab in Idaho, Micron will be driving even more demand for equipment, raw materials, and jobs – growing domestic front-end material sourcing 7x over the next 10 years."
"We are pleased to further strengthen our 30-year-long partnership with Micron Technology," said Matthieu Giard, CEO of Americas for Air Liquide. "This investment will support the production of leading-edge memory chips, notably to meet the growing demand for computing capacities required by Artificial Intelligence."
In April 2024, Micron disclosed the signing of a non-binding Preliminary Memorandum of Terms (PMT) with the Biden-Harris Administration. The PMT is intended to provide US$6.1 billion in funding under the CHIPS and Science Act to support the planned development of Micron's leading-edge memory manufacturing in Idaho and New York.
