: Taiwan’s Powerchip sells legacy fab it opened just 19 months ago after spending $9.5 billion

Seriously, what the fuck is going on with fabs right now?

Micron has found a way to add new DRAM manufacturing capacity in a hurry by acquiring a chipmaking campus from Taiwanese outfit Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC).

The two companies announced the deal last weekend. Micron’s version of events says it’s signed a letter of intent to acquire Powerchip’s entire P5 site in Tongluo, Taiwan, for total cash consideration of US$1.8 billion.

  • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
    4·
    1 day ago

    This deal may make matters worse for more buyers, because PSMC used the Tongluo site to make legacy DRAM products – the kind of memory used in less advanced products. With the company now exiting the legacy chip biz, that memory will also become more scarce, giving the laws of supply and demand another moment in which to work their way on markets.

    https://www.dqindia.com/esdm/microns-acquisition-of-psmcs-tongluo-fab-could-lift-global-dram-supply-outlook-in-2027-11012307

    PSMC’s current DRAM capacity mainly relies on 25nm and 38nm nodes, which restricts DDR4 production to lower-density products.

    I guess that that’s more DDR4 supply drying up. It’s going to be some very scarce years for memory until enough new production comes online.

    • Powderhorn@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      41·
      1 day ago

      It’s pretty clear that consumers are intentionally priced out of the market so they have to rent compute as a service.

      • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
        5·
        1 day ago

        I don’t think that memory manufacturers are in some plot to promote SaaS. It’s just that they can make a ton of money off the demand right now for AI buildout, and they’re trying to make as much money as they can in the limited window that they have. All kind of industries are going to be collateral damage for a while. Doesn’t require a more complicated explanation.

        Michael Crichton had some way of putting “it’s not about you” it in Sphere that I remember liking.

        searches

        “I’m afraid that’s true,” Norman said. “The sphere was built to test whatever intelligent life might pick it up, and we simply failed that test.”

        “Is that what you think the sphere was made for?” Harry said. “I don’t.”

        “Then what?” Norman said.

        “Well,” Harry said, “look at it this way: Suppose you were an intelligent bacterium floating in space, and you came upon one of our communication satellites, in orbit around the Earth. You would think, What a strange, alien object this is, let’s explore it. Suppose you opened it up and crawled inside. You would find it very interesting in there, with lots of huge things to puzzle over. But eventually you might climb into one of the fuel cells, and the hydrogen would kill you. And your last thought would be: This alien device was obviously made to test bacterial intelligence and to kill us if we make a false step.

        “Now, that would be correct from the standpoint of the dying bacterium. But that wouldn’t be correct at all from the standpoint of the beings who made the satellite. From our point of view, the communications satellite has nothing to do with intelligent bacteria. We don’t even know that there are intelligent bacteria out there. We’re just trying to communicate, and we’ve made what we consider a quite ordinary device to do it.”

        Like, two years back, there was a glut of memory in the market. Samsung was losing a lot of money. They weren’t losing money back then because they were trying to promote personal computer ownership any more than they’re trying to deter personal computer ownership in 2026. It’s just that demand can gyrate more-rapidly than production capacity can adjust.