By Gabby Chen

(JW Insights) Jun 16 -- US memory chip giant Micron announced on June 16 that it plans to invest RMB 4.3 billion ($603 million) in its packaging and testing plant in Xi'an of northwestern China's Shaanxi Province, over the next few years, JW Insights learned.

The company decided to acquire the packaging equipment of Powertech Semiconductor(力成半导体), a chip packaging facility jointly invested by Micron Powertech Technology(力成科技) in Xi'an in December 2014. Micron expects the acquisition to be completed in about a year.

Micron also plans to build a new factory building at its Xi'an factory and introduce new and high-performance equipment to better meet the demands of Chinese customers. It will open new production lines for manufacturing mobile DRAM, NAND, and SSD products to strengthen the plant's packaging and testing capabilities.

The investment will enhance Micron's flexibility in product portfolios, enabling the company to directly operate its packaging and testing business at the Xi'an factory. It would offer contracts to 1,200 employees of Powertech Semiconductor, and the investment would create an additional 500 jobs. This will bring Micron's workforce in China to more than 4,500 people, said the company.

Micron has been targeted by China's cyberspace regulator, which last month said the firm had failed a network security review and that the regulator would block operators of key infrastructure from buying from the company.