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

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

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.