TAIPEI – Micron Technology is set to provide its engineers in Taiwan a cash bonus of NT$1 million (S$40,000) plus equity rewards, as the company’s local unions are demanding additional payout to reflect their contribution to the chipmaker’s blowout profits.
The Boise, Idaho-based chipmaker said in a statement on Sept 11 that its entry-level, Taiwan-based engineers’ average compensation will reach NT$3.4 million for the past fiscal year after the cash and equities awards.
All employees in Taiwan will receive equities as part of the annual merit grants, the company added.
Before the announcement, Micron’s unions asked for a one-time cash payout equal to about seven years of an employee’s base salary.
That would translate into an average payment of about US$170,000 (S$215,500) per worker, based on Bloomberg calculations off data the unions provided.
They are also demanding the company allocate a portion of its profit to be shared with global employees as bonuses going forward.
The row over Micron’s payouts coincides with a global debate about who deserves a cut of the sudden wealth generated by booming investment in artificial intelligence-related data centres and other infrastructure.
That has spurred Micron’s Korean rivals Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix to promise employees a share of the profits in their bonuses.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co has also vowed to set aside 30 per cent more in profit-sharing payouts for employees.
But the sheer size of some of the bonuses has created rifts within companies and communities, with growing calls that users who supply AI with the data it needs also get a cut.
Micron has been handed a major boost from the AI boom.
Its cutting-edge high-bandwidth memory is required to make AI accelerators from the likes of Nvidia Corp.
The US chipmaker reported a 15-fold gain in net income in the third quarter, while its share price has risen more than 500 per cent over the past year.
Micron now employs about 15,000 people in Taiwan, which serves as a key manufacturing hub for the chipmaker.
At the same time, it still relies on the US for the bulk of its research and development operations and some production, while it also runs plants in Japan and Singapore. BLOOMBERG
