Micron Technology Inc Profile
Micron Technology, Inc. (Micron) designs, develops, and manufactures industry-leading memory and storage products.
By providing foundational capability for artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G across data center, the intelligent edge, and consumer devices, the company unlocks innovation across industries, including healthcare, automotive and communications. The company’s technology and expertise are central to maximizing value from cutting-edge computing applications and new business models, which disrupt and advance the industry.
With a relentless focus on the company’s customers, technology leadership, and manufacturing and operational excellence, Micron delivers a rich portfolio of high-performance DRAM, NAND, and NOR memory and storage products through its Micron and Crucial brands.
The company manufactures its products at wholly-owned facilities and also utilize subcontractors for certain manufacturing processes. The company’s global network of manufacturing centers of excellence not only allows it to benefit from scale while streamlining processes and operations, but it also brings together some of the world’s brightest talent to work on the most advanced memory technology. Centers of excellence bring expertise together in one location, providing an efficient support structure for end-to-end manufacturing, with quicker cycle times, in partnership with teams, such as research and development (R&D), product engineering, human resources, procurement, and supply chain. For its locations in Singapore and Taiwan, this is also a combination of bringing fabrication and back-end manufacturing together. The company makes significant investments to develop proprietary product and process technology. The company continues to introduce new generations of products that offer improved performance characteristics, including higher data transfer rates, advanced packaging solutions, lower power consumption, improved read/write reliability, and increased memory density.
Segments
The company operates through four business units: Compute and Networking Business Unit (CNBU), Mobile Business Unit (MBU), Embedded Business Unit (EBU), and Storage Business Unit (SBU).
Compute and Networking Business Unit (CNBU): Includes memory products and solutions sold into client, cloud server, enterprise, graphics, and networking markets.
Mobile Business Unit (MBU): Includes memory and storage products sold into smartphone and other mobile-device markets.
Embedded Business Unit (EBU): Includes memory and storage products and solutions sold into automotive, industrial, and consumer markets.
Storage Business Unit (SBU): Includes SSDs and component-level solutions sold into enterprise and cloud, client, and consumer storage markets.
Sales, Markets, and Products
Product Technologies
The company’s product portfolio of memory and storage solutions, advanced solutions, and storage platforms is based on its high-performance semiconductor memory and storage technologies, including DRAM, NAND, and NOR. The company sells its products into various markets through its business units in numerous forms, including components, modules, SSDs, managed NAND, MCPs, and wafers. The company’s system-level solutions, including SSDs and managed NAND, combine NAND, a controller, firmware, and in some cases DRAM.
DRAM: DRAM products are dynamic random access memory semiconductor devices with low latency that provide high-speed data retrieval with a variety of performance characteristics. DRAM products lose content when power is turned off (volatile) and are most commonly used in client, cloud server, enterprise, networking, graphics, industrial, and automotive markets. LPDRAM products, which are engineered to meet standards for performance and power consumption, are sold into smartphone and other mobile-device markets (including client markets for Chromebooks and notebook PCs), as well as into the automotive, industrial, and consumer markets.
NAND: NAND products are non-volatile, re-writeable semiconductor storage devices that provide high-capacity, storage with a variety of performance characteristics. NAND is used in SSDs for the enterprise and cloud, client, and consumer markets and in removable storage markets. Managed NAND is used in smartphones and other mobile devices, and in consumer, automotive, and embedded markets. Low-density NAND is ideal for applications like automotive, surveillance, machine-to-machine, automation, printer, and home networking.
NOR: NOR products are non-volatile re-writable semiconductor memory devices that provide fast read speeds. NOR is most commonly used for reliable code storage (e.g., boot, application, operating system, and execute-in-place code in an embedded system) and for frequently changing small data storage and is ideal for automotive, industrial, and consumer applications.
Products by Business Unit and Market
Compute and Networking Business Unit (CNBU)
CNBU includes memory products and solutions sold into client, cloud server, enterprise, graphics, and networking markets. CNBU sales in 2023 consisted primarily of DRAM products produced on 1x, 1y, 1z, and 1a (1-alpha) technology nodes. In 2023, the company achieved several important product qualifications on its industry-leading 1ß (1-beta) DRAM node and is well positioned to ramp manufacturing of CNBU products in 2024.
Client: CNBU sales to the client market in 2023 consisted primarily of DDR4, DDR5, LPDDR5, and LPDDR4 DRAM products. The company’s products sold to the client market support both commercial and consumer PC unit growth.
Cloud Server: CNBU sales to the cloud market in 2023 consisted primarily of the company’s DDR4 and DDR5 DRAM products. Overall cloud growth continues to be driven by the shift of both infrastructure and workloads from on-premises to the cloud. Cloud-native workloads are drivers of growth through use-cases like intelligent edge devices capable of AI and augmented reality that store and access data in the cloud or rely on the cloud for compute capability. Cloud servers supporting AI and data-centric workloads require significantly increasing quantities of DRAM, HBM, and NAND as the task of turning data into insight becomes increasingly memory-centric. As modern servers pack more processing cores into CPUs, the memory bandwidth per CPU core has been decreasing. The company’s DDR5 alleviates this bottleneck by providing higher bandwidth compared to previous generations, enabling improved performance and scaling. The company is working closely with its customers and have begun sampling its industry-leading HBM3E product offering. The company expects to begin a mass production ramp for HBM3E in early calendar 2024. In 2023, the company announced the introduction of 128GB and 256GB Compute Express Link (CXL) 2.0 memory expansion modules.
Enterprise: CNBU sales to the enterprise market in 2023 consisted primarily of the company’s DDR4 and DDR5 DRAM products. In 2023, the company announced volume shipments of its 96GB DDR5 high-density module built on 1a technology, using 24Gb die, which delivers equivalent performance for the majority of workloads versus the more expensive through-silicon via (TSV) dual-die package-based 128GB modules.
Graphics: CNBU sales to the graphics market in 2023 consisted primarily of GDDR6 graphics products. The graphics market is driven by the need for high-performance and HBM solutions. The company’s GDDR6 and GDDR6X DRAM graphics products are incorporated into gaming consoles, PC graphics cards, and graphics processing unit-based data center solutions, which are the driving force behind applications, such as AI, virtual and augmented reality, 4K and 8K gaming, and professional design.
Networking: CNBU sales to the networking market in 2023 consisted primarily of DDR4 and DDR5 DRAM products. In 2023, demand was driven by 5G infrastructure deployments, data center networking growth, and increasing data transfer requirements across multiple industries.
Mobile Business Unit (MBU)
MBU includes memory and storage products sold into the mobile market, including discrete NAND, DRAM, and managed NAND products. MBU managed NAND includes embedded multi-media controller (e.MMC) and universal flash storage (UFS) solutions, each of which combine high-capacity NAND with a high-speed controller and firmware, and eMCP/uMCP products, which combine an e.MMC/UFS solution with LPDRAM. In 2023, the company achieved key mobile customer qualifications on its 1ß based LPDDR5X and started high-volume revenue shipments to tier-1 OEMs. In addition, the company achieved significant milestones in UFS with the qualification and ramp of a high-capacity uMCP5 featuring 16GB of DRAM and 512GB of NAND. The company also started to sample a new UFS 4.0 product based on its latest 232-layer NAND technology, which enables industry-leading performance for flagship handsets.
Mobile: MBU sales to the mobile market in 2023 consisted primarily of LPDDR4 and LPDDR5 DRAM and managed NAND solutions. 5G-enabled products require higher DRAM and NAND content per device and the market penetration rate for 5G continued to increase. The company’s smartphone, tablet, and mobile PC products are utilized by OEMs to enable AI, augmented reality, and life-like virtual reality capabilities into high-end phones, including facial and voice recognition, real-time translation, fast image search, and scene detection.
Embedded Business Unit (EBU)
EBU includes memory and storage products and solutions sold into automotive, industrial, and consumer markets and includes discrete and module DRAM, discrete NAND, managed NAND, SSDs, and NOR. The embedded market has traditionally been characterized by long life-cycle DRAM and non-volatile products manufactured on mature process technologies. The company’s embedded products enable edge devices to store, connect, and transform information in the internet of things (IoT) market and are utilized in a diverse set of applications in the automotive, industrial, and consumer markets.
Automotive: EBU sales to the automotive market in 2023 consisted primarily of LPDDR4 and LPDDR5 DRAM, DDR3 and DDR4 DRAM, and e.MMC managed NAND. Advancements in autonomous driving, advanced driver-assistance systems, and in-vehicle infotainment systems continue to increase the requirements for high-performing memory and storage products, with higher reliability requirements for leading-edge products. Automotive memory and storage products enable connected, advanced infotainment systems with increasingly larger and higher definition displays and support improved voice and gesture control. In addition, the company’s products enable increasingly advanced vision and sensor based automated systems to support driver assistance solutions and vehicle safety. The company’s comprehensive and expanding portfolio of DRAM, NAND, and NOR solutions to the automotive market, as well as its extensive customer support network, enable it to maintain its strong leadership position in this market.
Industrial: EBU sales to the industrial market in 2023 consisted primarily of DDR3 and DDR4 DRAM, LPDDR4 DRAM, NAND MCPs, and SLC NAND. The company’s products enable applications in the growing industrial IoT market, including machine-to-machine communication, factory automation, transportation, surveillance, retail, and smart infrastructure.
Consumer: EBU sales to the consumer market in 2023 consisted primarily of the company’s LPDDR4 and LPDDR5 DRAM, DDR4 and DDR3 DRAM, and SLC NAND. These embedded memory and storage solutions are used in a diverse set of consumer products, including service provider and IP set-top boxes, digital home assistants, digital still and video cameras, home networking, ultra-high definition televisions, augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) headsets, and many more applications. The company’s embedded memory and storage solutions enable edge devices in the consumer products market to store, connect, and transform information in the IoT.
Storage Business Unit (SBU)
SBU includes SSDs and component-level solutions sold into enterprise and cloud, client, and consumer storage markets. In 2023, 176-layer NAND comprised the largest portion of SBU’s NAND bit shipments. In 2023, the company also began shipping client, consumer, and data center SSDs featuring 232-layer NAND technology. It features higher areal density and delivers higher capacity and improved energy efficiency over previous generations of the company’s NAND, to enable best-in-class support of the most data-intensive use cases from client to cloud.
SSDs: SSD storage products incorporate NAND, a controller, and firmware and offer significant performance and features over hard disk drives, including smaller form factors, faster read and write speeds, higher reliability, and lower power consumption. The company offers SSD solutions utilizing its NAND technology to the enterprise and cloud, client, and consumer markets.
Enterprise and Cloud SSDs: SBU sales to the enterprise and cloud SSD markets in 2023 consisted primarily of the company’s 5300, 7450, 5400, 9400, and 6500 series SSDs. In data center SSDs, the company’s entire portfolio is on 176-layer or 232-layer NAND, demonstrating its product and technology leadership. In 2023, the company launched its first 200+ layer NAND data center SSD, and qualification has completed at some customers and is in progress at other customers largely to support AI cluster installations.
Client SSDs: SBU sales to the client SSD market in 2023 consisted primarily of the company’s 2450, 2400, and 3400 series client SSDs. The company’s client SSDs, targeted for leading personal computer OEMs, have mostly replaced hard disk drives used in notebooks, desktops, workstations, and other consumer applications, and deliver high performance, power efficiency, security, and capacity.
Consumer SSDs: SBU sales to the consumer SSD market in 2023 consisted primarily of the company’s Crucial-branded MX500 and BX500 SATA SSDs and its P3, P3 Plus, and P5 Plus PCIe SSDs, which utilize its NAND QLC and TLC technologies. In 2023, the company began production shipments of Crucial T700, a Gen5 PCIe consumer SSD built with its 232-layer NAND. The company’s consumer SSD solutions have mostly replaced hard disk drives as end users and system builders and integrators seek the higher performance, power savings, and reliability of SSDs.
Components: SBU sales of components in 2023 consisted primarily of the company’s 96-layer, 176-layer, and 232-layer TLC and QLC NAND products.
Marketing and Customers
The company seeks to build collaborative relationships with its customers to understand their unique opportunities and challenges. By engaging with the company’s customers early in the product life-cycle to identify and design features and performance characteristics into its products, it is able to manufacture products that anticipate and address its customers’ changing needs. Collaborating with the company’s customers on their design needs in changing end markets and meeting their timelines for qualifying new products allows it to differentiate its memory and storage solutions, which provides greater value to its customers.
The company’s semiconductor memory and storage products are offered under its Micron and Crucial brand names and through private labels. The company markets its semiconductor memory and storage products primarily through its own direct sales force and maintain sales or representative offices to support its worldwide customer base. The company’s products are also offered through distributors, retailers, and independent sales representatives. The company’s distributors carry its products in inventory and typically sell a variety of other semiconductor products, including its competitors’ products. The company’s independent sales representatives obtain orders, subject to final acceptance by it, and it then make shipments against these orders directly to customers or through its distributors. The company sells its Crucial-branded products through a web-based customer-direct sales channel as well as through channel and distribution partners. The company maintains inventory at locations in close proximity to certain key customers to facilitate rapid delivery of products.
Due to volatile industry conditions, the company’s customers are generally reluctant to enter into long-term, fixed-price purchase contracts. The company typically enters into long-term agreements with its customers with acknowledgment that pricing, quantity, and other terms will be periodically negotiated to reflect market conditions and its customer’s demand for its products.
Competition
The company faces intense competition in the semiconductor memory and storage markets from a number of companies, including Kioxia Holdings Corporation; Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.; SK hynix Inc.; and Western Digital Corporation.
In particular, the company faces the threat of increasing competition as a result of significant investment in the semiconductor industry by the Chinese government and various state-owned or affiliated entities, in companies, such as Yangtze Memory Technologies Co., Ltd. (YMTC) and ChangXin Memory Technologies, Inc. (CXMT).
Patents and Licenses
As of August 31, 2023, the company owned approximately 13,100 active U.S. patents and 6,300 active foreign patents. In addition, the company had thousands of U.S. and foreign patent applications pending. The company’s patents have various terms expiring through 2042.
Trade Regulations
Sales of the company’s memory and storage products, and the transfer of related technical information and know-how, including support, are subject to laws and regulations governing international trade, including, but not limited to, export control, customs, and sanctions regulations administered by U.S. government agencies such as the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) of the U.S. Department of Commerce and the Office of Foreign Asset Control of the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Other jurisdictions, such as the European Union or China, also maintain, or may implement, similar laws and regulations with which the company must comply.
History
Micron Technology, Inc. was founded in 1978. The company was incorporated in 1984.
