Computer chipmaker Micron to open design center and create 500 jobs in Midtown Atlanta (home, technology jobs)

[Born 2 Roll]

Boise, Idaho-based Micron Technology, the last major U.S. maker of semiconductors for computer memory, will open a research and design center in Midtown Atlanta that will create about 500 jobs.

Micron chipmaker to open Atlanta center creating 500 jobs (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) (PAYWALL)

[Born 2 Roll]

The folks in Boise, Idaho, where Micron is headquartered and employs more people than any other private company in the state, understandably don’t seem to be too impressed with Micron’s decision to open a major operation more than 2,000 miles away on the other side of the continent in Atlanta.

Micron Technology Inc. may have its research hub in Boise, but for a new memory-chip design center, the Boise company is going where no Micron engineering center has gone before: Georgia.

Micron has announced that the center in Midtown Atlanta will open in January and will create up to 500 jobs in computer hardware, electrical engineering and related fields.

The center in part is a result of what Micron called its “active engagement” with the Georgia Institute of Technology, a school perhaps best known to Boiseans as an occasional opponent of Boise State basketball and softball teams. The center is also a play to expand Micron’s supply of potential recruits.

Micron says it will open memory-chip design center with 500 jobs. But not in Boise. (Idaho Statesman)

[Atlwarrior]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

The folks in Boise, Idaho, where Micron is headquartered and employs more people than any other private company in the state, understandably don’t seem to be too impressed with Micron’s decision to open a major operation more than 2,000 miles away on the other side of the continent in Atlanta.



Micron says it will open memory-chip design center with 500 jobs. But not in Boise. (Idaho Statesman)

Per the Atlanta Business Chronicle, "The 93,000-square-foot Atlanta Design Center will open in January 2022 in Midtown, home to the Technology Square innovation district created by the Georgia Institute of Technology. That district brings together university, startup and corporate resources and has attracted thousands of technology jobs in the past year.

In October, global technology firm Cisco Systems Inc. announced a 700-job expansion in the Coda building, one of the newest additions to Tech Square. Google is anchoring a new, 31-story Midtown office tower. Microsoft added 1,500 jobs to Atlantic Yards.

Access to skilled labor and low operating costs are the main drivers for these tech developments, site selection experts say. Georgia Tech, the Atlanta University Center, Emory University and Georgia State University contribute to that talent pool."

[MichiganderTexan]

Originally Posted by Born 2 Roll

The folks in Boise, Idaho, where Micron is headquartered and employs more people than any other private company in the state, understandably don’t seem to be too impressed with Micron’s decision to open a major operation more than 2,000 miles away on the other side of the continent in Atlanta.



Micron says it will open memory-chip design center with 500 jobs. But not in Boise. (Idaho Statesman)

I'd imagine the range of talent they can attract to Boise is limited, especially if they want to create a workforce that has any level of diversity.

[southwest88]

Micron is a US corporation? The last major chip maker in the US? Then surely their expansion of chip research & design in the US is a good thing? Computer chips are integral to a lot of devices - until that technology is overcome by the next wave of technological evolution, we have to do the best we can with it.

Good for them, good for the IT industry, good for the country. Possibly, in the long run, good for Western Civ.

[Born 2 Roll]

Originally Posted by MichiganderTexan

I'd imagine the range of talent they can attract to Boise is limited, especially if they want to create a workforce that has any level of diversity.

Yep.

Even though it is the largest and most important city/metro in the state of Idaho, Boise is a relatively kind of small and kind of isolated city/metro in the larger scheme of things, with a small relatively very small airport in a sparsely populated and isolated state in Idaho.

The Boise Airport (which is the nation’s 69th-busiest airport) normally only gets about 2% of the amount of passenger traffic that the Atlanta Airport gets as the nation’s busiest airport and the world’s 2nd-busiest, formerly world’s busiest airport.

Idaho (which with a population of about 1.839 million residents, has only about one-sixth of the population of a state like Georgia) also has a population that is about 82% percent non-Hispanic white, while the city of Boise proper’s population is about 83% non-Hispanic white.

Meanwhile, the state of Georgia’s population is about 50% minority, while the population of the city of Atlanta proper is over 60% minority and the population of greater metro Atlanta is about 55% minority.

So Atlanta’s significantly increased level of geographical convenience and diversity probably was very appealing to a corporation like Micron.

[Yoski]

Originally Posted by MichiganderTexan

I'd imagine the range of talent they can attract to Boise is limited, especially if they want to create a workforce that has any level of diversity.

I lived in the Boise metro for 3 years. The Micron plant always seemed out of place there. Nothing else about Boise screamed tech. I loved the Boise metro though.

[walker1962]

Originally Posted by southwest88

Micron is a US corporation? The last major chip maker in the US? Then surely their expansion of chip research & design in the US is a good thing? Computer chips are integral to a lot of devices - until that technology is overcome by the next wave of technological evolution, we have to do the best we can with it.

Good for them, good for the IT industry, good for the country. Possibly, in the long run, good for Western Civ.

Texas instruments designs and manufactures chips as well.

[ShenardL]

Tech square has brought a lot of tech companies, you have incubator and think-type spaces there.

[JMatl]

Originally Posted by walker1962

Texas instruments designs and manufactures chips as well.

Well, the article states that Micron is "the largest major chip manufacturer" in the U.S. Perhaps Texas Instruments is no longer considered 'major' by the industry?

At any rate, it's another major win for Midtown and Atlanta.