Micron strikes union deal for Idaho chipmaking plant

Semiconductor company Micron (MU) has reached a deal with unions to build a $15 billion chipmaking plant in Idaho, according to a report from Bloomberg. The move could give the company an advantage to when it comes to getting subsidies from the Chips and Science Act.

Yahoo Finance’s Madison Mills and Brad Smith weigh in on the deal and the US’ stake in the global chipmaker market.

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Video Transcript

BRAD SMITH: Micron, we're tracking them this morning. They are striking a union deal for construction of its Idaho chip plant. It gives the semiconductor giant a chance at receiving a subsidy under the CHIPS Act, which has a preference for companies that make union agreements. To deal-- well, the deal rather will cover about 3,700 construction workers that the company will eventually hire.

This comes just a day after an Arizona labor union and Taiwan Semiconductor also reached a labor dispute agreement here. So a lot of focus on the chip space this week, whether it be in making sure that they're bringing on more capacity here in the States and tapping into some of the subsidies or similar to the conversation in advancement around AI chips specifically. Our own executive editor Brian Sozzi being able to speak with Lisa Su who is over at AMD and really getting a clear vision for what's taking place with regard to just scaling up to meet this GPU, and the graphics processing unit, and chip demand that they're seeing in the generative AI landscape right now.

MADISON MILLS: And it's such an important point, Brad, to in terms of the investment because the US has a lot of catching up to do when it comes to chip production, right? If we want to be at the forefront of this industry that, like you said, with AI requiring a lot of GPUs, we're going to need to produce a whole lot of chips. And news like this starts to allow the US to lay the groundwork for actually participating in that global fight for chip production.

Also, want to point out Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer saying that this is a good union play too, adding 3,700 not just jobs, but union construction jobs. So also a story about the continuation of unionized labor as we head into the end of this year and early 2024, Brad, as well.

BRAD SMITH: Yeah, absolutely. Taking a look at Micron shares here and that is just a max chart if you wanted to go all the way back to where were you winds of Micron's existence as a publicly traded company. But ultimately, taking a look at the year to date, this company has been able to move higher by about 47%.