https://www.tomshardware.com/news/micron-to-sell-3d-xpoint-fab-to-texas-instruments-for-dollar900-million Skip to main content (*) ( ) [] Tom's Hardware [ ] Search [ ] RSS UK US Australia Canada * * Reviews * Best Picks * Raspberry Pi * CPUs * GPUs * Coupons * More + Laptops + SSDs + Motherboards + Cooling + Desktops + PC Builds + Monitors + RAM + PC Cases + Keyboards + Headsets + Mice + Power Supplies + VR Headsets + Windows Tips Forums Trending * Windows 11 * AMD FSR * 3D V-Cache * RTX 3080 Ti Tom's Hardware is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more 1. Home 2. News Micron to Sell 3D XPoint Fab to Texas Instruments for $900 Million By Paul Alcorn 30 June 2021 Micron pops the parachute * * * * * * Comments (1) 3D Xpoint Optane (Image credit: Intel) Micron announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its Lehi, Utah fab to Texas Instruments for $900 million in cash. In March, Micron announced that it planned to sell off the fab, bringing an end to its production of the radical new 3D XPoint (Optane) memory technology that it developed with Intel. Texas Instruments plans to deploy its own technologies at the site, meaning that it will not be used for 3D XPoint production. Intel currently doesn't have any known high-volume production of the strategically important storage/memory media. However, it is known to produce a small amount of the media for research and validation at its New Mexico facility. As a result, Intel will likely have to establish its own production lines to ensure the supply of its Optane based SSDs and persistent memory DIMMs for its data center clients, though demand has seemed tepid. Micron chose to exit 3D XPoint manufacturing due to lackluster demand that the company said had "insufficient market validation to justify the ongoing high levels of investments required to successfully commercialize 3D XPoint at scale." The company recently divulged that it lost $400 million this year alone due to the lack of demand for 3D XPoint. Micron has an agreement to produce 3D XPoint (which Intel brands as 'Optane') for Intel until the end of 2021. However, Intel's own efforts to productize Optane, which uses the 3D XPoint media, have met with slow but steady uptake in the data center but fizzled in the consumer market. As such, Intel ceased production of all Optane devices for desktop PCs in January 2021. The economic value of the sale weighs in at $1.5 billion for Micron. Texas Instruments will pay $900 million in cash for the fab, while Micron will recoup another $600 million from secondary sales of additional tools and other assets. Micron has already lined up buyers for several of those assets, while other assets will either be sold to other buyers or shipped out to its other Micron manufacturing sites. In addition, TI will convert the facility from a 300mm fab to 65nm and 45nm. It will also attempt to retain all of the Lehi, Utah employees after the closing of the sale, which is planned to occur by the end of the calendar year. Intel and Micron developed the revolutionary 3D XPoint persistent memory, which melds the speed and endurance of DRAM with the persistence of data storage devices, in a secret joint effort that spanned a decade. The first formal announcement came in 2015. The Lehi sale marks the end of Micron's 3D XPoint efforts, though the company does retain its IP associated with the technology. The company previously bought Intel out of its stake in their IMFT joint venture for $1.5 billion in 2018. Micron announced several of its own storage devices based on 3D XPoint memory, like the QuantX and X100, but they never came to market, leaving Intel as the sole supplier of 3D XPoint-based products. Micron says that it will shift its focus to developing memory products that support the Compute Express Link (CXL) standard, an open memory standard that ties together disparate pools of memory and compute. "Micron's Lehi, Utah, facility has a strong history of technology innovation and leading-edge semiconductor manufacturing," said Micron President and CEO, Sanjay Mehrotra. "We are pleased to have reached an agreement with Texas Instruments as it is an industry leader and truly values the talented Lehi team and the capabilities this site offers to deploy its technology effectively. We are greatly appreciative of the contributions that the Lehi team has made to Micron, as well as the collaboration and engagement Micron has had with the local community." This is breaking news. We've reached out to Intel for comment and will update as necessary. Paul Alcorn Paul Alcorn is the Deputy Managing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He writes news and reviews on CPUs, storage and enterprise hardware. Topics Storage See all comments (1) [ ] 1 Comment Comment from the forums * Giroro Intel fumbled Optane so badly, it's a real shame. They create this amazingly fast storage technology for random reads/writes, but then pair it with outdated first-gen controllers that have subpar sequential performance. When you're selling the most expensive SSD (by far), then it needs to excel in every category. If you want people to combine an extra module with an HDD, then the pairing needs to be either good enough, cheap enough, or simple enough that people have a reason to buy it over a standard SSD. Maybe they could have used optane's longevity to take advantage of people wasting money on Chia? 3D Xpoint also could have replaced the SLC cache for a high performance optane/flash hybrid SSDs using a single integrated controller. But instead they glued their slowest optane module to their slowest SSD and said "eh, performance, who needs it? ". People want this tech, Intel. We have just been waiting for a good-enough product sold at a justifiable price.... With ryzen compatibility. Reply * View All 1 Comment Be In the Know Get instant access to breaking news, in-depth reviews and helpful tips. [ ] [ ] [ ] Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands [ ] Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors [Sign me up] Thank you for signing up to Tom's Hardware. You will receive a verification email shortly. There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again. No spam, we promise. You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details without your permission. (*) ( ) Most Popular Most Shared 1. [missing-im] 1 Micron to Sell 3D XPoint Fab to Texas Instruments for $900 Million 2. [missing-im] 2 How to Install Windows 11 on a Raspberry Pi 4 3. [missing-im] 3 Retro Graphics Card Brings Voodoo, PowerVR GPUs to New PCs 4. [missing-im] 4 Colorful's $4,999 RTX 3090 Card is an Overclocker's Dream 5. [missing-im] 5 House Passes Bills to Support American Innovation, STEM Education 1. [missing-im] 1 Micron to Sell 3D XPoint Fab to Texas Instruments for $900 Million 2. [missing-im] 2 How to Install Windows 11 on a Raspberry Pi 4 3. [missing-im] 3 Retro Graphics Card Brings Voodoo, PowerVR GPUs to New PCs 4. [missing-im] 4 Colorful's $4,999 RTX 3090 Card is an Overclocker's Dream 5. [missing-im] 5 House Passes Bills to Support American Innovation, STEM Education Tom's Hardware is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site. * Terms and conditions * Privacy policy * Cookies policy * Accessibility Statement * Advertise * About us * Contact us * Coupons (c) Future US, Inc. 11 West 42nd Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10036.