Micron Shares Slip Below $900 as Taiwan President Urges Talks

Micron Technology shares slipped below $900 Thursday as Taiwan President Lai Ching-te urged employers and workers to negotiate and a local union pressed for permanent profit sharing.

Shares ended Wednesday at $914.13 after losing 4.10% in that session. Lai made his appeal at the Oct. 15 opening of Micron’s Advanced Assembly and Test Taiwan 2 (AATT2) facility in Taichung. The event began at 11:30 p.m. ET Wednesday, Oct. 14 (03:30 UTC Thursday, Oct. 15). Lai called on employers and workers to communicate, build trust and negotiate in good faith.

Wednesday’s decline preceded Lai’s remarks, so the timing does not establish a connection between the stock move and the labor dispute.

The Taoyuan union’s strike authorization followed a six-day vote that ended Oct. 7. Of 2,258 eligible members, 2,012 cast ballots: 1,994 supported strike action, 14 opposed it and four ballots were invalid. Support amounted to 99% of votes cast and 88.3% of eligible members.

Union Chairman Jerry Lin said, “We haven’t decided on an actual strike schedule yet.” The union seeks a permanent system that would allocate 15% of Micron’s operating profit to employees. It has criticized the company’s Incentive Pay Plan as lacking transparency.

Micron’s fiscal 2026 rewards package set minimum cash compensation for Taiwan employees, while the union continued to seek permanent profit sharing. Micron said it was “committed to listening to their perspectives and engaging with them constructively.” Its fiscal year ended Sept. 3, with $133.19 billion in revenue, $99.34 billion in GAAP operating income and $84.97 billion in GAAP net income.

Micron employs about 15,000 people in Taiwan, a major production base for dynamic random-access memory and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) used in AI servers. At the facility opening, Micron President and Chief Operating Officer Manish Bhatia said all planned AATT2 capacity for 2027 had been sold. He expected HBM demand to grow faster than the broader DRAM industry through 2028.

The unions have described a planned Taipei event for Monday, Oct. 19, as a rally. The Taichung union remained in negotiations.