Micron to fund AI innovation in China

The world's third-largest chip firm, Micron Technology, on Tuesday announced a partnership with Beijing's Tsinghua University to support artificial intelligence innovation in universities and non-profit organizations.

It is the company’s first fund of its kind in China.

The company's US$100,000 Micron Foundation at the university is part of its US$1 million global project to support researchers tackling some of AI’s greatest challenges — from building highly reliable software and hardware to finding solutions that address the business and consumer impacts of AI.

“These technologies present dramatic new opportunities to shape the future across all industries, but they require collaboration with leading academic institutions to realize their full potential,” Micron President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra, said in a statement.

Products such as driverless vehicles, intelligent storage and those using the Internet of Things will fuel huge demand for memory.

The car-related memory market alone is expected to see demand hit US$5.9 billion globally in 2021, compared with 2.4 billion in 2017.

Data centers, smartphones, smart cars and the IoT will become major growth engines for Micron, thanks to surging demand for memory with improved data transmission speed and calculation capabilities, said Frank Liu, engineering director of Micron Embedded Business Unit.

Micron has a factory in Xi’an, a design house in Shanghai and sales offices in Beijing and Shenzhen.