Micron halts $4.5B Taiwan AI memory plant amid union pay fight
Micron has all but halted construction of a planned $3 billion to $4.5 billion memory plant in Taoyuan, Taiwan, during a dispute with a local union over profit-sharing, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Micron says its Taiwan operations continue as normal.
AI-assisted · US Brief desk · Sources listed below
What happened
Micron Technology has all but halted construction of a memory chip plant in Taoyuan, Taiwan, because of a long-running labor dispute, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter. Only minor safety work continues at the site, known as Fab 11E, which was due to open in 2028.
Micron had budgeted $3 billion to $4.5 billion for the project, including equipment from ASML, one of the people told Bloomberg. Micron said in a statement that "our operations today continue as normal" and that it is confident in "maintaining business continuity for our customers." It did not address the Taoyuan plant directly.
The fight: Micron reached a pay deal last month with its larger union in Taichung. The smaller Taoyuan union, with fewer than 3,000 members, wants 15% of operating profit shared with employees and all-cash bonuses, union chair Jerry Lin said. It is recruiting members to try to annul the existing deal.
Why it matters
The plant was meant to make high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and DRAM, the chips that sit beside Nvidia's AI processors and are already in short supply. Taiwan makes 60% of Micron's DRAM output, so any pullback there could tighten a market where memory prices are already rising.
More context
Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs said the standing deal would more than double junior engineers' average annual pay to about NT$4 million ($121,450). The ministry said it supports the agreement and is working to help resolve the dispute.
What's new: On Thursday, the Taoyuan union said it would withdraw from profit-sharing talks and skip negotiations scheduled for Nov. 17, Taiwan News reported. In an open letter, the union said it had to "formally admit ... that we have failed." The construction halt itself, first reported by Bloomberg, still has not been formally confirmed by Micron or by Taoyuan officials.
What remains unknown: whether Micron has formally decided to suspend Fab 11E, which neither the company nor Taoyuan officials have confirmed, now that the Taoyuan union has left the talks.
4 listed sources
- Bloomberg via Taipei Times, Nov. 6, 2026
- Focus Taiwan (CNA), Nov. 6, 2026
- Seoul Economic Daily, Nov. 7, 2026
- Taiwan News, Micron Taoyuan union withdraws from profit-sharing talks, Nov. 12, 2026
References listed by US Brief; a source count is not a verification score.
Editorial sourcing notes
The halt rests on Bloomberg's anonymous sources (via Taipei Times); Micron did not directly address the Taoyuan project. The photo shows Micron's fab in Taichung, not the Taoyuan site.
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