SOUTHEAST BOISE, Idaho — What started in the basement of a Boise dentist's office has grown into a global semiconductor powerhouse — and now Micron Technology is bringing a major piece of its future back to where it began.
The construction underway in southeast Boise is part of a $50 billion investment that includes two new fabrication facilities, known as fabs, in the city where the company was founded. Micron is also expanding in New York.
WATCH | Micron's Boise roots fuel $50B US semiconductor push—
Jeff Binford, Senior Director of US Expansion Planning at Micron, said the company's origins were humble.
"Four guys decided to come up with a cool way to design a new circuit, and it's now grown into a $1 trillion company."
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Today, Micron is a semiconductor company with global recognition. Its memory and storage products power the technology millions of people use every day — from smartphones and computers to cars and cloud storage. After years of growing its manufacturing footprint overseas, surging demand for artificial intelligence technology is helping drive that growth back to Boise.
"All of the preparation that we've been doing matched up with this unbelievable AI growth that we've been seeing. Those two things really intersected, and now we have this great opportunity to take advantage of it," Binford said.
Company leaders point to nearly five decades of history in Boise, a strong research workforce, and thousands of patents developed in the Treasure Valley as reasons Idaho made sense for this next chapter of growth.
Binford said the investment will have a lasting impact on the region.
"They're such a gigantic investment that we know it will create an ecosystem that will support the Boise area for decades and decades to come."
The new fabs are expected to generate jobs across multiple sectors for generations.
"As we're in this new moment where we have the opportunity to build in the US, these factories will be here for decades. It will give us a chance for jobs for engineers and technicians and trades workers so our grandkids could work at these factories," Binford said.
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