$MU Risk Factor changes from 00/10/06/23/2023 to 00/10/04/24/2024
Item 1A. Risk Factors.”5 | 2024 10-KTable of ContentsPART IITEM 1. BUSINESSOverviewWe are an industry leader in innovative memory and storage solutions transforming how the world uses information to enrich life for all. With a relentless focus on our customers, technology leadership, and manufacturing and operational excellence, Micron delivers a rich portfolio of high-performance DRAM, NAND, and NOR memory and storage products through our Micron® and Crucial® brands. Every day, the innovations that our people create fuel the data economy, enabling advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and compute-intensive applications that unleash opportunities — from the data center to the intelligent edge and across the client and mobile user experience. Every day, the innovations that our people create fuel the data economy, enabling advances in artificial intelligence and 5G applications that unleash opportunities — from the data center to the intelligent edge and across the client and mobile user experience. We manufacture our products at wholly-owned facilities and also utilize subcontractors for certain manufacturing processes. Our global network of manufacturing centers of excellence not only allows us to benefit from scale while streamlining processes and operations, but it also brings together some of the world’s brightest talent to work on the most advanced memory technology. Centers of excellence bring expertise together in one location, providing an efficient support structure for end-to-end manufacturing, with quicker cycle times, in partnership with teams such as research and development (“R&D”), product development, human resources, procurement, and supply chain. For our locations in Singapore and Taiwan, this is also a combination of bringing fabrication and back-end manufacturing together. We make significant investments to develop proprietary product and process technology, which generally increases bit density per wafer and reduces per-bit manufacturing costs of each generation of product. We continue to introduce new generations of products that offer improved performance characteristics, including higher data transfer rates, advanced packaging solutions, lower power consumption, improved read/write reliability, and increased memory density.We face intense competition in the semiconductor memory and storage markets.We face intense competition in the semiconductor memory and storage markets from a number of companies, including Kioxia Holdings Corporation; Samsung Electronics Co. To remain competitive we must continuously develop and implement new products and technologies and decrease manufacturing costs in spite of inflationary pressures. Our success is largely dependent on obtaining returns on our R&D investments, efficient utilization of our manufacturing infrastructure, development and integration of advanced product and process technologies, market acceptance of our diversified portfolio of semiconductor-based memory and storage solutions, and efficient capital spending.Products, Market, and SalesProduct TechnologiesOur product portfolio of memory and storage solutions, advanced solutions, and storage platforms is based on our high-performance semiconductor memory and storage technologies, including DRAM, NAND, and NOR.Sales, Markets, and ProductsProduct TechnologiesOur product portfolio of memory and storage solutions, advanced solutions, and storage platforms is based on our high-performance semiconductor memory and storage technologies, including DRAM, NAND, and NOR. We sell our products through our business units into various markets in numerous forms, including: components, modules, SSDs, managed NAND, multi-chip packages, and wafers. We sell our products into various markets through our business units in numerous forms, including components, modules, SSDs, managed NAND, MCPs, and wafers. Many of our system-level solutions combine NAND, a controller, firmware, and in some cases DRAM. DRAM: DRAM products are dynamic random access memory semiconductor devices with low latency that provide high-speed data retrieval with a variety of performance characteristics. DRAM products lose content when power is turned off (“volatile”) and are most commonly used in the data center, client PC, graphics, industrial, and automotive markets. DRAM products lose content when power is turned off (“volatile”) and are most commonly used in client, cloud server, enterprise, networking, graphics, industrial, and automotive markets. In 2023, we began shipping the industry’s first 1β (1-beta) production node, which offers further improvements in power efficiency and bit density. The majority of our DRAM bit production in 2024 was on leading-edge 1α (1-alpha) and 1ß nodes. We expect volume shipments in 2025 of our next generation of DRAM, the 1γ (1-gamma) node, which will employ EUV lithography production. 6Table of ContentsDouble Data Rate (“DDR”): DDR memory transfers data twice per clock cycle resulting in improved speeds, power efficiency, and storage density. DDR5 is the fifth generation of this technology and offers the critical improvements in bandwidth and power efficiency necessary to meet the growing needs of high-performance computing, AI, and data-intensive applications. High-Bandwidth Memory (“HBM”): A 3D stacked DRAM architecture that utilizes through-silicon via (“TSV”) connections for a more efficient communication between each stack giving it the ability to achieve a higher bandwidth while consuming less power compared to other memory types. This makes it ideal for applications that require high data throughput and energy efficiency, such as AI applications and high-performance computing.Graphics DRAM (“GDDR”): High performance memory solution designed for graphics cards, gaming consoles, and high-performance computing applications. GDDR memory is optimized for high-bandwidth workloads encountered by graphics processing units, offering faster data rates and efficient data processing capabilities. Low-Power DRAM (“LPDDR”): Engineered for mobile devices and applications requiring low power consumption. LPDDR products generally operate at a lower voltage than standard DRAM products and are beneficial to any power conscious application. The benefits of LPDDR memory are being realized by many market segments including mobile, PC, automotive, and data center. Total reported DRAM revenue was $17.60 billion in 2024, $10.63 billion in 2023, $7. 98 billion in 2023, and $22.55 billion in 2022, and $3. 39 billion in 2022.97 billion in 2021. NAND: NAND products are non-volatile, re-writeable semiconductor storage devices that provide high-capacity, low-cost storage with a variety of performance characteristics.7 | 2023 10-KTable of ContentsNAND: NAND products are non-volatile, re-writeable semiconductor storage devices that provide high-capacity, low-cost storage with a variety of performance characteristics. NAND is used in SSDs for the data center, client PC, consumer, and automotive markets and in removable storage markets. NAND is used in SSDs for the enterprise and cloud, client, and consumer markets and in removable storage markets. Managed NAND is used in smartphones and other mobile devices, and in consumer, automotive, and embedded markets. Low-density NAND is ideal for applications like automotive, surveillance, machine-to-machine, automation, printer, and home networking. In 2022, we began volume production of 232-layer NAND (“Micron G8 NAND”), the industry’s first eighth-generation NAND. It features higher areal density and delivers higher capacity and improved energy efficiency over previous generations of our NAND. It features higher areal density and delivers higher capacity and improved energy efficiency over previous generations of our NAND, to enable best-in-class support of the most data-intensive use cases from client to cloud. In 2024, we began volume production of Micron G9 NAND, representative of the industry's ninth-generation 3D NAND node. Micron G8 and G9 NAND nodes are ramping in high volume and will become an increasing portion of our mix through 2025.Our NAND Flash includes triple-level cell (“TLC”) and quad-level cell (“QLC”), each with varying levels of storage density, performance, and endurance. In 2024, we announced shipments of our densest OEM production QLC NAND, built on this technology, with improved storage density and access times.In 2024, we also began shipping Micron G9 TLC based NAND in SSDs designed to deliver the transfer rates required to meet the low-latency and high-throughput needs of data-centric workloads from AI training and machine learning to unstructured databases, self-driving cars, and cloud computing. Solid State Drives (“SSDs”): SSD storage products incorporate NAND, a controller, and firmware to offer significant performance and features over hard disk drives, including smaller form factors, faster read and write speeds, higher reliability, and lower power consumption needed to address the growing demands of data-centric workloads, ever-increasing expectations of client users, and the stringent requirements of automotive and industrial applications. Managed NAND: Managed NAND combines NAND flash with a sophisticated controller and firmware in a single package. This integration allows the memory to manage itself, handling tasks like wear leveling, bad block management, and error correction internally, freeing the host system from these tasks. Products such as embedded MultiMediaCards (“eMMC”) and universal flash storage (“UFS”) offer solutions that are compact and reliable making them widely used across the mobile, automotive, and industrial markets. Multi-Chip Packages (“MCPs”): Designed to provide high-performance, compact, and efficient memory solutions by integrating multiple types of memory, generally LPDRAM, into a single package. MCPs are used in embedded internet of things (“IoT”) applications, automotive systems, mobile devices, and industrial devices where space and power efficiency are critical.Total reported NAND revenue was $7.23 billion in 2024, $4.63 billion in 2023, $7. 21 billion in 2023, and $7.26 billion in 2022, and $7. 81 billion in 2022.28 billion in 2021. 7 | 2024 10-KTable of ContentsNOR: NOR products are non-volatile, re-writable semiconductor memory devices that provide fast read speeds. NOR is most commonly used for reliable code storage (e.g., boot, application, operating system, and execute-in-place code in an embedded system) and for frequently changing small data storage and is ideal for automotive, industrial, and consumer applications.Products by Business Unit and MarketCompute and Networking Business Unit (“CNBU”)CNBU includes memory products and solutions sold into the data center, PC, graphics, and networking markets including HBM, DDR, LPDRAM and GDDR, as well as some emerging memory technologies like compute express link (“CXL”) and multi-ranked dual in-line memory module (“MRDIMM”).Products by Business Unit and MarketCompute and Networking Business Unit (“CNBU”)CNBU includes memory products and solutions sold into client, cloud server, enterprise, graphics, and networking markets. Data center: CNBU sales to the data center end market were driven primarily by server demand across the cloud and enterprise markets and solutions offered to the networking market. Overall cloud growth continues to be driven by the shift of both infrastructure and workloads from on-premises to the cloud. Cloud-native workloads are drivers of growth through use-cases like intelligent edge devices capable of AI and augmented reality that store and access data in the cloud or rely on the cloud for compute capability. Cloud servers supporting AI and data-centric workloads require significantly increasing quantities of DRAM, including HBM, and NAND as the task of turning data into insight becomes increasingly memory-centric. Cloud servers supporting AI and data-centric workloads require significantly increasing quantities of DRAM, HBM, and NAND as the task of turning data into insight becomes increasingly memory-centric. In 2024, we began volume production of our 8-high 24GB HBM3E with increased bandwidth and superior power efficiency enabled by our advanced 1β process node. This enhanced version of the third generation of HBM delivers faster data rates, improved thermal response, and a higher monolithic die density within the same package footprint as previous generations. We have also started shipments of production-capable HBM3E 12-high 36GB units to enable qualifications across the AI ecosystem.As modern servers pack more processing cores into central processing units (“CPUs”), the memory bandwidth per CPU core has been decreasing. Our DDR5 alleviates this bottleneck by providing higher bandwidth compared to previous generations, enabling improved performance and scaling. In 2024, we qualified and began shipping our 128GB DDR5 server module, built on a monolithic 32Gb DRAM die and powered by our 1ß node. This innovative product provides an industry alternative to existing 3D TSV-based solutions to address the rigorous speed and capacity demands of memory-intensive generative AI applications. We are leveraging our innovative solutions to pioneer the adoption of LPDDR for servers in the data center. Additionally, we also announced our 256GB MRDIMM module, which further enhances performance and increases DRAM content per server.In 2024, networking demand was driven by AI and DDR5 platform deployments in data center networking and increasing data transfer requirements across multiple industries.PC: Our products sold to the client PC market support both commercial and consumer PC unit growth. Our products sold to the client market support both commercial and consumer PC unit growth. The next generation PCs that have been announced contain high-performance neural processing chipsets as well as AI. We expect these devices will have significantly more DRAM content than today’s average PC. As AI use cases proliferate to PCs, performance of the memory subsystem becomes more critical. In 2024, we announced the low-power compression-attached memory module to deliver the required performance to process AI workloads on PCs and provide the potential to scale to applications needing a high performance and low power solution in a compact and modular form factor.Graphics: The graphics market is driven by the need for high-performance and HBM solutions. The graphics market is driven by the need for high-performance and HBM solutions. Our GDDR6 and GDDR6X DRAM graphics products are incorporated into gaming consoles, PC graphics cards, and graphics processing unit-based data center solutions, which are the driving force behind applications such as AI, virtual and augmented reality, 4K and 8K gaming, and professional design. 8Table of ContentsIn 2024, we announced our next generation GDDR7 graphics memory which delivers high-performance memory in a power-optimized design. Built on our 1β node, GDDR7 is the next generation of GDDR memory to advance user experience in graphics and gaming. The addition of GDDR7 completes our industry-leading product portfolio for AI inference applications on CPUs, neural processing units, and graphics processing units.CNBU reported revenue of $9. CNBU reported revenue of $5. 51 billion in 2024, $5.64 billion in 2023, $5. 71 billion in 2023, and $13.69 billion in 2022.97 billion in 2021. CNBU sales to the data center, PC, and graphics markets in 2024 consisted primarily of our HBM, DDR5 and DDR4, LPDDR5, and GDDR6 DRAM products. Mobile Business Unit (“MBU”)MBU includes memory and storage products sold into the smartphone and other mobile-device markets including discrete NAND, DRAM, and managed NAND products. 8Table of ContentsMobile Business Unit (“MBU”)MBU includes memory and storage products sold into the mobile market including discrete NAND, DRAM, and managed NAND products. MBU offers a comprehensive portfolio of MCPs and managed NAND, including products which combine eMMC/UFS solutions with LPDRAM, along with a suite of unique firmware features designed for next-generation smartphones and to accelerate AI applications in the mobile market.The proliferation of smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices continues to increase the demand for memory chips. These devices require high-performance memory to support various applications, from gaming to productivity. Smartphones offer tremendous potential for personalized AI capabilities that offer greater security and responsiveness when executed on the device. Enabling these on-device AI capabilities is driving increased memory and storage capacity needs and increasing demand for new value-add solutions.In 2024, we announced our second generation of NAND UFS 4.0 devices, which offer a more compact package size and increased power efficiency to provide design manufacturers more room and power needed for next generation smartphone designs. We also began sampling our next generation of low power smartphone DRAM, built on our 1ß node. The LPDDR5X provides peak bandwidth data transfer that is critical for enabling AI at the intelligent edge. This advanced memory technology is designed for high-end and flagship smartphones where its high bandwidth and power efficiency are crucial for delivering top-tier performance. MBU reported revenue of $6.35 billion in 2024, $3.63 billion in 2023, and $7.63 billion in 2023, $7. 26 billion in 2022.28 billion in 2021. MBU sales to the mobile market in 2024 consisted primarily of LPDDR5 and LPDDR4 DRAM and managed NAND solutions.Mobile: MBU sales to the mobile market in 2023 consisted primarily of LPDDR4 and LPDDR5 DRAM and managed NAND solutions. Embedded Business Unit (“EBU”)EBU includes memory and storage products and solutions sold into the intelligent edge through the automotive, industrial, and consumer embedded markets including discrete and module DRAM, discrete NAND, managed