Micron's Virginia Factory Officially Begins Production: The First Volume Production of 1-alpha DRAM in the United States

Micron Technology announced on Friday that its plant located in Manassas, Virginia, has officially launched volume production of 1-alpha DRAM, the most advanced memory chip manufacturing process node produced on US soil to date. Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra attended the celebration ceremony, along with Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, and several senators and Virginia state officials who were also present to witness the event.

As the only domestic memory chip manufacturer in the United States, the 1-alpha node produced by Micron is the world's most advanced DDR4 technology, primarily serving key industries with rigid demands for long cycle storage such as automotive, defense and aerospace, industrial, networking, and medical devices. This investment of over two billion US dollars will quadruple the DDR4 wafer capacity of the Manassas plant, with qualified products (Qualified 1α DRAM) expected to achieve volume production by the end of **2026**.

The production launch was directly funded by the CHIPS Act. Micron has finalized a $275 million direct grant agreement from the CHIPS Act with the US Department of Commerce to expand and modernize the Manassas plant, which is projected to create approximately 400 manufacturing jobs and up to 2,700 community support jobs.

The production launch at the Manassas plant is one of the key milestones in Micron's $200 billion domestic expansion plan. The overall investment blueprint also includes the construction of new factories in Idaho and New York, with the Idaho plant expected to start production in 2027 and the New York plant breaking ground in January this year.

Strategically, the Virginia plant focuses on long cycle application scenarios, while the new factories in Idaho and New York will undertake the production tasks of cutting-edge processes for AI data centers; together, they form a complete layout for Micron to rebuild the domestic storage supply chain in the United States. Currently, about 2% of the world's memory chips are produced in the United States, all from the Manassas plant alone, making this capacity expansion strategically significant beyond the scope of a single company.