US electronics multinational Micron is to invest another 4.3 billion yuan ($602 million) in its Chinese chip packaging plant, a significant investment announced weeks after Beijing imposed restrictions on the use of its semiconductors. The largest US memory chip maker will buy equipment and add assembly lines to its existing plant in the central city of Xi’an over the next few years. The company added that this is expected to create 500 jobs, bringing its workforce in the country to more than 4,500.
Micron’s move coincides with the Chinese government’s decision to block its chips from accessing “critical infrastructure” for cybersecurity concerns. US lawmakers slammed the move as a thinly veiled attack on an American company at a time when Washington itself is imposing sanctions on China. The tech sector has become a critical national security battleground between the two major economies: Washington has already blacklisted Chinese tech firms, cut off the flow of sophisticated processors, and banned its citizens from providing certain media to the chip industry.
Micron’s chip ban has exacerbated uncertainty surrounding US chipmakers selling to China, the world‘s largest semiconductor market. Companies like Qualcomm, Broadcom and Intel are supplying chips worth billions of dollars to the country which imports more semiconductors than oil.
