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TAP TIMES -22- MARCH 2022
Stocks (from 21)
did top analysts’ expectations for profit in
2022. In response, seven analysts brought
down their price targets (for Q122), while
two raised their targets.”
Some stock analysts say the stock is de-
pressed because they are concerned how
Gelsinger will cover the costs of the pro-
posed chip factory additions and expan-
6
sions.
Micron, like its memory competitors, has been in an expansion
mode for the past several years. This Taichung plant is one of
Micron Technology (MU) two Taiwan-based factories it has acquired. (Micron)
If any segment in the Although spuds are Idaho’s largest con-
semiconductor busi- sumable export — making-up about one-
ness deserves the title third of all tubers grown in the U.S., the
Big Kahuna, it’s without state’s largest export is semiconductor
question memory. Three memory from Micron.
companies rule where
semiconductor memory Competition aplenty
is concerned. Two are When Micron was born as a memory sup-
South Korean,the third is plier, it was a tiny company, and there was
in Boise, Idaho. competition aplenty, including AMD, AT&T,
The triplets Intel, Signetics and Texas Instruments
in the U.S. There were an even a larger
Korea-based Samsung Semiconductor, number of memory makers in Japan.
and SK hynix are numbers 1 and 2. Mi-
cron Technology, surrounded by the po- Compared to the huge storage size and
tatoe fields of Boise, is in third place. performance of today’s DRAM or SRAM
chips, leading-edge memory was only a
Micron owes its origin, in fact, to pota- tiny 64K. Micron’s first customer was the
toes. It was founded in 1978, far away long-defunct Mostek in Carrollton, Texas
from Silicon Valley — about 670 miles. — the same company Micron’s founders
had abandoned for the also now-defunct
The company began in the basement Inmos, prior to Micron.
of a Boise dental office where twins Joe
and Ward Parkinson, Dennis Wilson and The battle is joined
Douglas Pitman converged to noodle the By 1982, the Japanese memory chip gi-
likelyhood of semiconductor success far ants, such as Hitachi and Toshiba, ruled
away from the mainstream. the memory market. It was tough enough
competing with the U.S. makers of mem-
About two years after Micron’s found- ory, but now the Japanese were dumping
ing, the venture caught the eyes of John their chips below cost.
Richard Simplot. At the time, Simplot
was on his way to becoming a billionaire In 1982, the Reagan administration sanc-
through his potatoe business. He had tioned the Japanese under Section 337 of
become known as the “Potatoe King.” next page
