Amidst efforts to repair its relationship with mainland China, American memory giant Micron Technology announced a settlement with its competitor Fujian Jinhua over a previously high-profile intellectual property theft lawsuit.

On December 24th, a spokesperson for Micron Technology stated in a media email statement that a global settlement agreement has been reached with Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co., Ltd. Both companies will withdraw their lawsuits against each other globally and end all lawsuits between the two parties. A spokesperson for Micron Technology refused to disclose further details.

Looking back at the case, the lawsuit between Micron and Fujian Jinhua originated in 2016, when Taiwan's Lianhua Electronics signed a technology cooperation agreement with Fujian Jinhua to assist Jinhua in developing 32 nanometer DRAM related process technology. Afterwards, three senior executives of Micron were transferred to Liandian, sparking suspicion of a commercial espionage case. In December 2017, Micron Technology sued Lianhua Electronics and Fujian Jinhua in a federal court in California, USA, alleging that Lianhua Electronics had stolen their intellectual property rights, including key technologies for storage chips, through Micron Taiwan employees and handed them over to Fujian Jinhua, infringing on Micron's trade secrets. Afterwards, Lianhua Electronics also suspended its related cooperation with Jinhua.

Subsequently, Micron filed a lawsuit until November 26, 2021, when Uni President announced that the company had reached a global settlement agreement with Micron. Both parties would withdraw their lawsuits against each other, and Uni President would pay a one-time confidential settlement fee to Micron. In the future, both parties would jointly create cooperation opportunities.

Now, two years later, Micron and Fujian Jinhua have officially reached a global reconciliation, marking the official end of the storage war initiated by Micron.

Regarding Meiguang's statement, some industry insiders have stated that it is only a settlement at the level of the two companies.

According to reports, about a quarter of Micron's global revenue comes from China. Micron announced in June that it will increase investment in China and plans to invest over 4.3 billion yuan in its packaging and testing plant in Xi'an in the coming years. Meiguang CEO Megh Rothra also visited China in November.

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