Micron Pauses Work on Taiwan Memory Fab as Union Dispute Over Profit Sharing Drags On

The US chipmaker told Taiwanese officials and a supplier that it would pause construction, Bloomberg reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the talks are private. Some minor safety-related work will continue before the site is frozen, according to that report. Micron declined to say directly whether work had stopped. It said Taiwan "plays an important role" in its global manufacturing and that operations there are running normally.

The pause matters because of what the plant was meant to make. Fab 11E, which broke ground in July, was planned to produce high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and advanced DRAM, the chips that sit beside Nvidia's AI accelerators, with supply to major customers including Nvidia due to begin in 2028, according to Seoul Economic Daily. The project is valued at between $3 billion and $4.5 billion, and one person told Bloomberg that budget includes top-end equipment from ASML. Bloomberg did not establish whether Micron intends to cancel the investment or resume once the dispute is settled.

Two Unions, One Deal

Micron has two unions in Taiwan. In September it offered staff in Taichung a one-time bonus of NT$1 million, about $31,400, according to TipRanks. In October it reached a wider agreement with the Taichung union, the larger of the two, covering bonuses, pay rises, paid leave and pensions.

The Taoyuan union, which has fewer than 3,000 members, says it was left out of those talks. Its chair, Jerry Lin, said the union wants Micron to set aside 15% of operating profit for employees worldwide, in line with the profit-sharing schemes at Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, and to pay the incentives entirely in cash. Lin said the union is recruiting members of the Taichung union in an effort to annul the existing pact and force a renegotiation.

Micron regards the October agreement as legally binding, according to one of the people Bloomberg spoke to, and executives are said to be worried about rising uncertainty, including the chance that the deal could be overturned. Mark Hsu, who chairs the Taichung union, said the agreement is valid under the law. Micron said in a statement: "We look forward to reaching an agreement."

Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs said it supports the company's legal agreement with the union and is helping to carry out Micron's investment plans. It said the existing deal would more than double the average annual package of junior engineers to NT$4 million and triple that of senior engineers to NT$6 million. Engineers at listed Taiwanese semiconductor companies averaged NT$2.58 million in 2025, according to 104 Job Bank. The Taoyuan city government said it had not been notified of any suspension.

Taiwan's Weight in Micron's Output

Taiwan is central to Micron's business. The island accounts for about 60% of the company's DRAM output and a significant share of its HBM. Micron has invested nearly $50 billion there over three decades and employs about 15,000 people, around a quarter of its global workforce, making it the largest foreign investor in Taiwan, according to Seoul Economic Daily.

Micron's shares fell as much as 7.3% in US trading on Thursday, when memory and semiconductor stocks were already under pressure from a broad sell-off in AI-related shares after the US midterm elections.

The company has other options for new capacity. It has committed $250 billion to US manufacturing, including sites in New York state, and is expanding in Japan and Singapore. Whether Fab 11E restarts now depends on talks with a union of fewer than 3,000 members, and on whether the larger union's agreement survives its challenge.