For ‘high-paying jobs’ at Boise fab, Micron will work to entice veterans, women, Latinos
The $15 billion plant Micron is building on its campus in Southeast Boise will come online in 2025. From now until then, the company and community leaders want to be sure people are thinking about its impact.
The new plant, or fab — for semiconductor fabrication — will be responsible for memory-chip manufacturing, and it is expected to bring a slew of jobs to the Treasure Valley. It also is seen as a big step in reinstating semiconductor production in the U.S.
Those were hot topics Thursday at the fab site — not just the number of jobs, but who would fill them — as Micron celebrated plant construction on the 45th anniversary of the company’s founding with a ceremonial concrete pour. Company CEO Sanjay Mehrotra was joined by Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Boise Mayor Lauren McLean, among others.
This will be the first fab built in America in over 20 years, according to Micron.
The company’s billion-dollar investment in Idaho follows the passage of the CHIPS and Science Act by Congress in 2022, which authorized subsidies for semiconductor companies to expand domestically. Micron filed applications for the fab, and another planned in New York state, with the U.S. Department of Commerce in August.
It ensures future production of DRAM, dynamic random-access memory, and NAND flash memory, which are used in cars, computers, cellphones and other electronics. At an event at Boise State on Wednesday, Mehrotra emphasized that it memory would benefit from the AI revolution.
How many jobs will the fab bring to Boise?
Micron has said the fab will create 2,000 jobs at the company itself, plus another 15,000 indirect jobs related to the services and support the massive plant will require. That includes suppliers and contractors.
The 2,000 jobs at Micron will be “highly sophisticated,” according to Mehrotra.
“These are high-paying jobs,” he said at a Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Wednesday. “It will increase the average wages in the community here by a substantial percentage, as well as help improve child poverty in the region.”
Who is going to fill these jobs?
More important than the total number of jobs to Mehrotra on Thursday was the company’s plan to diversify its workforce further.
Though Micron traditionally hires graduates of four-year universities, it plans to recruit more talent from two-year community colleges for apprenticeships and technician jobs, he said. Mehrotra also said that Micron wants to hire more women, Latinos, veterans, people from rural Idaho and others who are underrepresented in STEM fields.
April Arnzen, chief people officer at Micron, said the company is working on a veterans transition program that allows former military members to get a certificate and “step right into a job” after they leave the armed forces.
“We really want these opportunities to be inclusive for all,” Arnzen told the Idaho Statesman. “We’re removing the barriers so everyone — women, minorities, veterans — everyone can participate.”
How big is the fab?
Right now, as one would expect, the site of the new fab is mostly dirt and construction equipment.
In a couple of years, it will be a 600,000-square-foot facility housing the largest semiconductor clean room ever built in the United States, according to Mehrotra. Clean rooms are where silicon wafers are turned into integrated circuits.
The clean room will be the size of roughly 10 football fields, and located near Micron’s existing research and development fab.
“It will be massive and transformational for the U.S., the world and the semiconductor industry,” Mehrotra said Thursday.
What investments is Micron making in education?
At the ceremony Thursday, Mehrotra announced that the company plans to pour $75 million into an “Idaho Community Investment Framework” to bolster memory-chip manufacturing in the state.
The money will go toward workforce development in the Boise area over the next 10 years. Micron has previously said it hopes to create an employee pipeline, investing in every level of education to better equip Idaho students for jobs in the semiconductor industry.
McLean said the funding and workforce development efforts will ensure that Treasure Valley children can grow up and get jobs at Micron if they want to pursue that career.
“It’s something that will change the lives of so many people right here in this region,” McLean said.
This story was originally published October 6, 2023 at 4:00 AM.
