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As Micron President Visits China, Chip Maker Stays Silent In US-China Balancing Act

Amjad Ali July 26, 2024

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US chip maker Micron Technology, which Beijing targeted last year with a partial sales ban, has stayed tight-lipped about the company president’s visit to China, reflecting the uneasiness of semiconductor firms as they try to maintain business in the world’s second-largest economy amid geopolitical uncertainty.

Sanjay Mehrotra was among a group of US executives who this week met with top Chinese top officials, including Vice-Premier He Lifeng and Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Chinese officials asked US businesses to “play a strong role” in the country’s development. Micron and Mehrotra were not mentioned in China’s official readout, but a picture from the Foreign Ministry on Monday showed Mehrotra among the visitors.

Micron also made no mention of the visit on social media, and there have been no public reports about Mehrotra’s visit. In contrast, Apple chief operating officer Jeff Williams, who was also in the group, separately met Shenzhen party secretary Meng Fanli and visited Apple stores in China.

Micron did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

Sanjay Mehrotra, president and chief executive officer of Micron Technology, speaks to members of the media during a tour of the company’s headquarters in Boise, Idaho, on June 10, 2024. Photo: Bloomberg

Mehrotra’s low-profile trip comes as the Boise, Idaho-based memory chip maker tries to maintain its global business amid an escalating US-China tech war.

Pressure has risen as Washington has ramped up scrutiny and export restrictions on China, cutting the country off from some of the world’s most advanced semiconductors. In what was widely seen as a response, China’s Cyberspace Administration ruled that Micron failed to pass a “cybersecurity review”, barring key infrastructure operators in the country buying its products.

For the financial year ended August 31, 2023, Micron reported a 31 per cent decline in its mainland China revenue to US$2.2 billion, and an 80 per cent decline in Hong Kong to US$340 million.

Yangtze Memory Technologies Corporation (YMTC), China’s top memory chip maker, has also filed several lawsuits against its American rival in both the US and China.

In the latest lawsuit filed to a California court this month, YMTC accuses Micron of infringing on 11 of its patents related to 3D NAND Flash and DRAM products. The Chinese chip maker requested a court order to stop Micron from selling the identified memory products in the US.

YMTC first filed a civil lawsuit against the largest US memory chip maker last November in the same court, alleging that Micron and its subsidiary Micron Consumer Products Group together infringed on eight of YMTC’s patents for flash memory chips.

In a separate case, YMTC has filed lawsuits against Micron at the Beijing Intellectual Property Court, asserting that its American rival infringed three of its Chinese patents. It asked the court to ban the sale of related products in the country, according to a disclosure in Micron’s second-quarter financial report.

Micron has since reiterated its commitment to the China market. It announced last year a plan to invest US$600 million to upgrade its chip assembly and packaging plant in Xian, including a buyout of its Taiwanese partner Powertech Technology.

Mehrotra met Chinese commerce minister Wang Wentao in Beijing last November. Wang said China welcomes Micron to grow its business “under the precondition of following Chinese laws and regulations”, while Mehrotra “expressed willingness to expand investments in China”, according to a brief statement from the ministry at the time.

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