From a basement to a $15 billion investment. This timeline shows how Micron got here
Manufacturing giant Micron Technology Inc. announced Thursday that it plans to invest $15 billion into its Southeast Boise campus. The technology firm, which specializes in the production of computer memory and data storage systems, says that the expansion will create more than 17,000 American jobs, 2,000 of which would be for Micron.
Micron was founded in 1978 in the basement of a Boise dental office before it broke ground on its first fabrication site in the Treasure Valley. Below is a timeline of Micron, from its humble beginnings 44 years ago to its latest investment, which will stand as the largest private investment in Idaho history, according to the company.
1978: Micron Technology Inc. is founded.
1980: Ground is broken on Micron’s first wafer-fabrication plant on Federal Way.
1981: Micron ships its first 64K DRAM.
1984: Micron goes public, becoming a publicly traded company on Nasdaq.
1994: Micron is named a Fortune 500 company. Steve Appleton succeeds Joe Parkinson as CEO.
1998: Micron acquires Texas Instruments’ worldwide memory operations.
1999: Micron’s Boise employment peaks at about 12,000. Micron creates a foundation to advance STEM education and support communities.
2000: Micron stock reaches $96.56, its all-time high until 2022, when the stock closed at $97.36 on Jan. 14.
2002: Micron acquires Toshiba’s DRAM operations in Manassas, Virginia.
2004: Appleton is hospitalized briefly after a plane in which he was performing stunt maneuvers crashes.
2005: Micron and Intel form a flash-memory joint venture, IM Flash Technologies, to operate Micron’s Utah plant.
2009: Micron ends memory manufacturing in Boise. Fewer than 5,000 workers remain.
2012: Appleton dies when his plane crashes in Boise. Mark Durcan succeeds him as CEO.
2013: Micron acquires two struggling competitors, Japan’s Elpida Memory Inc., and Taiwan’s Rexchip Electronics Corp.
2015: Micron donates $25 million to Boise State University to build a materials-sciences building.
2016: Micron acquires Taiwan’s Inotera Memories, opens a Singapore fab.
2017: Micron opens a new clean-room fab for research and development. Sanjay Mehrotra is named CEO.
2018: Micron stock tops $61, its highest in 18 years, and the company announces that its Intel partnership will in 2019 and Micron will run its Utah plant by itself.
2019: Micron announces the first microSD card with a storage of 1 terabyte and acquires FWDNXT, a maker of hardware and software tools for artificial intelligence. Micron also sees a sharp revenue drop, from $7.8 billion in the second quarter of 2018 to $4.79 billion in the second quarter of 2019, because of U.S. trade restrictions placed on one of the company’s largest customers, China-based telecom company Huawei.
2020: Micron announces plans to expand its Federal Way headquarters. The company commits over $325,000 to the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund for Idaho.
2021: Allen Noble, one of Micron’s first investors who sat on the board of directors for 16 years, dies. Micron also announces that any worker not vaccinated for COVID-19 after Nov. 15, 2021, would “no longer be permitted to work for Micron.”
2022: Micron announces plan to spend $15 billion to build a fab on its Southeast Boise campus less than a month after President Joe Biden signs the CHIPS and Science Act of 2022, which provides financial incentives for American semiconductor companies to build and expand in the U.S. Micron also reveals plans to construct a new seven-story office building on its Boise campus. Micron employs more than 6,000 people in the Treasure Valley; the plant could add 2,000 more.
This story was originally published September 1, 2022 at 11:19 AM.
CORRECTION: This story has been revised to reflect that a Micron spokesperson told the Idaho Statesman on Sept. 6, 2022, that the company employs more than 6,000 people in the Treasure Valley, not the nearly 7,000 that a Micron executive had told the Statesman in early August.
