Micron Technology (MU) Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra said customers who pushed memory chip prices sharply lower in recent years share responsibility for the current supply-and-demand imbalance, leaving the industry underinvested ahead of the AI boom, CNBC reported Tuesday.
Prices fell to one-third of prior levels in 2023, pushing Micron and other suppliers into negative gross margins and curtailing investment in new capacity just as AI-driven demand began accelerating, Mehrotra told CNBC's "Mad Money."
The supply crunch is likely to persist well beyond 2027 given the years required to build new fabs (farbrication plants) and the growing complexity of next-generation memory, Mehrotra said, according to the report.
Micron is investing roughly $200 billion in manufacturing and R&D, including new fabs in Boise, Idaho and Syracuse, New York, with first chips from the Boise facility expected by mid-2027, the report said.
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