Micron expects to expand Manassas facility soon

Bolstered by hundreds of millions of dollars in state and federal funding, semiconductor manufacturing in Northern Virginia soon will be expanding.

In May, Idaho-based Micron Technology applied for federal funding through the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act, which allocated more than $52 billion in subsidies for domestic companies researching and manufacturing semiconductors, to expand its Manassas plant. Micron manufactures dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips for automobiles at its Manassas facility.

The expansion will move its existing DRAM manufacturing from Taiwan to Virginia and will nearly double the workforce at the plant, which already employs 1,230 people.

That follows closely with the intended impact of the CHIPS Act. In 2021, the United States manufactured roughly 14% of semiconductors worldwide but consumed 34%, according to a White House statement. This imbalance became evident in 2020, when the pandemic interrupted supply chains, creating shortages of automobiles, household appliances and other electronics.

While Micron’s application is working its way through the process, U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, who co-authored the CHIPS Act, says the federal subsidy will be significant.

“I am optimistic it will be a multi-hundred-million-dollar investment,” Warner says.

That will be on top of a yet-undisclosed amount of funding from the state government, much of which came in a repackaging of a 2018 $70 million incentive bundle. Virginia’s Major Employment Investment Project Review Commission unanimously approved the funding in a closed-door meeting in May, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported.

Micron plans to invest $3 billion in the expansion by 2030.

“Gov. Youngkin is working with federal partners to ensure Micron’s application is as competitive as possible to bring this project to fruition in Virginia,” says Macaulay Porter, a spokesperson for the governor. “Micron’s proposed expansion marks an unparalleled opportunity for Virginia … to demonstrate leadership in key semiconductor memory technologies.”

The state’s involvement helps Micron’s case with its CHIPS Act application, Warner says, and will prove important in keeping the burgeoning business at the forefront of Virginia’s economy.

“We’ve seen historically that if a company doesn’t continue to invest … technology will pass them by,” Warner says. “So, this CHIPS funding is extremely important.”

The timeline is not clear for when the federal review process will wrap up, nor has Micron designated a timeline for the expansion.