# EP 163: Breaking the Memory Wall: Micron’s Strategy for the AI Era

- Show: [The Circuit](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-circuit)
- Published: 2026-05-05
- Length: 52m
- Episode: 166
- Page: https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/the-circuit/2026-05-05-ep-163-breaking-the-memory-wall-microns-strategy-for-the-ai-era
- Listen: https://share.transistor.fm/s/a83858ff

## Summary

Jeremy Werner, SVP and GM of Micron’s Core Data Center Business Unit, explains how AI is shifting the memory industry from a cyclical model to sustainable growth driven by the 'memory wall' in inference. He details Micron's strategy to break this bottleneck through innovations like HBM4 and ultra-high-capacity SSDs, which address critical data center constraints of power and physical space. The conversation covers the technical hierarchy of memory, from HBM to context storage, and Micron's aggressive capacity expansion plans to meet surging demand for AI training and inference workloads.

## Outline

1. Introduction: Jeremy Werner and Micron's Core Data Center Business Unit
2. The Shift from Cyclicality to Sustainable AI-Driven Growth
3. Defining the Memory Wall in AI Inference and KV Cache
4. The Memory Hierarchy: HBM, Main Memory, and Context Storage
5. Power Efficiency and the 245 Terabyte SSD Innovation
6. Accelerating Innovation and Deep Co-Design with Customers
7. Global Capacity Expansion and Fab Construction Challenges

## Topics

- [Chips, FPGAs & semiconductors](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/chips-and-fpgas)
- [PCB design & layout](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/pcb-design)
- [Scaling production](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/scaling-production)
- [AI & machine learning](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/topic/ai-and-machine-learning)

## Most relevant to

large enterprises

## Mentioned

- Micron (company)
- HBM4 (product)
- HBM3e (product)
- SSD (product)
- Nvidia (company)
- TSMC (company)
- Google (company)
- ChatGPT (product)
- Grok (product)
- TPU (chip)
- GPU (chip)
- KV cache (other)
- DDR5 (product)
- HBM (product)

## Related episodes from other shows

- [AI and Semiconductor Memory: More, More, More](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ee-times-current/2021-10-01-ai-and-semiconductor-memory-more-more-more) (EE Times Current)
- [Designing the AI Factory from the Rack Up](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ee-times-current/2026-08-21-designing-the-ai-factory-from-the-rack-up) (EE Times Current)
- [Fixing AI’s Bottlenecks: Memory, Scale, and Sparsity](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ee-times-current/2026-04-23-fixing-ais-bottlenecks-memory-scale-and-sparsity) (EE Times Current)
- [Can the Nvidia Monopoly on AI Chips Be Broken?](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ee-times-current/2026-03-16-can-the-nvidia-monopoly-on-ai-chips-be-broken) (EE Times Current)
- [EMS & The Economist: How AI Data Centers Are Reshaping Memory Prices And Supply with Shawn DuBravac](https://hardwarepodcasts.com/podcast/ems-c-level/2026-04-27-ems-the-economist-how-ai-data-centers-are-reshaping-memory-prices-and-supply-wit) (EMS@C-LEVEL)

## Citing this page

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