AI boom spurs Micron timeline — and housing demand — in Southeast Boise

Expect Micron to dominate Boise’s development landscape in 2026 as the canopy of cranes off Federal Way makes progress — and fast.

Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra says the company is pushing up its timelines for opening its first semiconductor fabrication plant, or fab, into the first half of 2027, instead of the second half. His announcement in a Dec. 17 earnings call came months after the chipmaker unveiled plans to start construction on a second fab in 2026, eyeing a 2028 ribbon-cutting.

“We are excited to see the progress toward manufacturing leading-edge memory in Idaho,” Micron spokesman James Byers told the Statesman in an email.

Founded and headquartered in Boise, Micron is Idaho’s largest for-profit employer, according to previous Statesman reporting. It specializes in high-bandwidth memory chips, a type of dynamic random-access memory critical to data centers powering the ongoing artificial intelligence boom. Micron is riding a surge in demand for those chips to record revenues — and, like the rest of the industry, doing all it can to keep up.

“We are moving quickly to do our best to provide customer supply,” Micron Chief Financial Officer Mark Murphy said in the Dec. 17 call. “And we have pulled in tools. We have accelerated construction in Idaho. We are doing everything we can within our existing footprint and near-term capacity expansions to deliver supply.”

Locally, that has meant investment well beyond the $15 billion announced in 2022. And it has meant huge interest in housing development in Southeast Boise.

Where will Micron workers and contractors live?

“Everyone in the private sector is really keeping an eye on where people from Micron want to live,” said Ethan Mansfield, predevelopment manager at Boise developer Hawkins Cos. “It’s going to be really, really tough on infrastructure if we don’t provide housing in that area.”

With contractors and staff needing housing, Hawkins has seen interest in apartments grow with the fabs. Hawkins opened its 288-unit Canyon Ridge complex in August, he said, and it is already almost fully leased. The apartments at 2552 E. Gowen Road are just over a mile drive down Federal Way from Micron’s campus. They’re marketed as high-end, and priced to match: the smallest one-bedroom starts at $1,600 per month, with three-bed, two-bath models topping $2,400.

Hawkins Cos. hopes to break ground on at least one other apartment project farther up Federal Way, at the start of Protest Road. The 200-unit complex with two levels of parking has received conceptual approval from the city of Boise and is going through the city’s design-approval process now and for the next eight to 12 months, Mansfield said.

“At the end of this year, you may see us pushing dirt on that site,” he said.

Other developers are at similar stages. Large subdivisions continue to spring up off of the I-84 corridor, particularly in Southwest Boise off Cole Road.

In November, Boise annexed land for the 3,500 home Murio Farms subdivision down the street from Corey Barton Homes’ Locale, a 2,000-home development already underway.

“Micron is absolutely part of the broader growth story,” Ronda Conger, vice president of Meridian-based CBH Homes, said in an email to the Statesman. “As one of Idaho’s largest and most important employers, it brings long-term job stability and increased housing demand. Being thoughtful about housing options near major employment centers is critical for the health of our communities, and we see value in planning for that responsibly.”

Conger said CBH is still “early in the process” of deciding what to build on sites near Micron. “As we move forward, we’ll be looking at product types that support affordability, livability, and long-term demand — especially for people who want to live close to where they work.”

These projects have significant build-out timelines: Murio Farms, for instance, expects to take 20 years to complete.

The jobs, though, should be there when the homes come online.

“Micron is really driving up demand in that area,” Mansfield said.

This story was originally published January 9, 2026 at 4:00 AM.