Trudy Sullivan, spokeswoman for the Boise, Idaho-based computer memory chip-maker, said Monday it would be early to mid-2007 before the Utah County facility will see its long-mothballed production lines brought online. About 200-300 new jobs could eventually be added, she said.
The $700 million, 2,100-acre, 12-building campus along Traverse Ridge employs 500 memory product testers - less than one-tenth the work force of 6,000 predicted when the company broke ground on the plant in 1995.
"Lehi team members will play a pivotal part in this new venture," Sullivan said. "Initially, though, the added [flash memory] output will occur in our Boise facilities [in early 2006], then continue at our plant in [Manassas] Virginia."
Depending on market supplies and demand, Lehi's high-volume, chip manufacturing-related buildings will be brought online in 2007.
Lehi Mayor Kenneth Greenwood said he and his town's 20,000 residents have patiently waited for the plant to realize its potential; they can wait a bit more.
"Anything that brings us jobs, to help people here provide for their families, is a good deal," he said. "We welcome it, whether its 200 jobs or 2,000."
Micron did not detail how many jobs it expects to immediately add to its Boise and Virginia operations, saying details of its deal with Intel and Apple were still being worked out.
Under the agreement, San Jose, Calif.'s Intel and Micron will form a new company, IM Flash Technologies Inc., to handle production of the solid-state, internal flash memory cards for the popular line of iPod music and video players.
Specifically, the venture will focus on NAND flash memory, which is used not only in iPods but in consumer electronic devices such as digital cameras, key chain storage gadgets and hand-held computers.
Flash memory is termed nonvolatile, meaning it maintains stored information without power. Flash chips also process faster than other memory chips, and are more resilient to shock than hard disks; that makes them ideal for use in battery-powered devices such as iPods, cell phones and PDAs.
Apple will pay $250 million each to Intel and Micron to supply the memory. The company also reached long-term supply agreements with Hynix, Samsung Electronics and Toshiba.
Under the Intel/Micron deal, each company will ante up $1.2 billion to launch IM Flash, and over the next three years they plan to invest an additional $1.4 billion each. Micron will hold 51 percent of the venture, Intel the remainder.
"This strategic relationship positions both Intel and Micron to build on each other's strengths to become leaders in the fast-growing NAND market segment," said Steve Appleton, Micron chairman, president and CEO. "This enhances Micron's competitive position as a leading supplier of advanced semiconductor solutions by ensuring we better serve our customers in the mobile communication and consumer electronics market segments."
Paul Otellini, Intel president and CEO, welcomed the partnership with Micron, along with the closer ties to Apple. The new company helps Intel maintain its memory and computer processor market strength overall, and "enables us to rapidly enter a fast-growing portion of the flash market segment," he said.
Micron's stock closed Tuesday at $14.20 per share, up 2 cents.
bmims@sltrib.com
