Micron has stopped construction on its $4.5 billion Fab 11E site in Taoyuan, Taiwan, because talks with the local union over profit-sharing remain unresolved.
Bloomberg reported that activity at the site has all but ceased, apart from minor safety work. Some of its sources said executives are worried about the uncertainty in the negotiations. Micron has not issued a statement on the pause, but it has told local officials. On operations, the company said: "Taiwan plays an important role in Micron's global footprint, and our operations today continue as normal."
The Taoyuan union wants clearer profit-sharing terms and has already staged a one-day strike to show how operations could be disrupted. The two sides meet again on November 6. Micron has offered a bonus worth as much as five times the annual salary of some eligible workers, and it settled with the larger Taichung union, though some members there said they were unhappy with the result.
The dispute follows a pattern. Workers at Micron, Samsung and SK hynix are all pressing for a larger share of the profits from the AI memory chip boom. SK hynix agreed to bonuses of $477,000 per employee this year and up to $900,000 next year. Samsung Foundry workers secured a $340,000 average bonus, approved at the last minute and averting a large strike.
Those Korean deals now set the benchmark that Micron's Taiwanese staff are measuring themselves against. A pause on a half-built fab, announced just ahead of a negotiating session, is also hard to read as pure logistics. It may be leverage, though Micron has not said so.
Micron is building elsewhere, with an HBM fab planned in Japan, a $24 billion project in Singapore and facilities across the U.S. Taiwan's government has said it hopes for an outcome that works for both sides. The open question is whether Micron settles in Taoyuan, or lets other sites absorb its attention while the talks drag on.