“Mr. President, today I rise on behalf of myself and my good friend and colleague also from Idaho, Senator Crapo. We would like to honor an exceptional business from the great state of Idaho: Micron Technology. Although Micron began in Idaho with just four employees, it will celebrate its 40 ^th anniversary this week as one of the world’s top tech companies, with thousands of employees worldwide.

“Micron started as a semiconductor design company in the basement of a Boise dental office in 1978. Soon after it broke ground on its first fabrication plant in 1980, Micron introduced the world’s smallest 256K dynamic random-access memory. By 1994, Micron’s development of solid state drives and other flash memory technology in its product portfolio earned it a spot on the Fortune 500 list. Today, Micron’s team of more than 34,000 employees spans the globe from Boise, Silicon Valley, and Virginia to Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, and Europe. 

“As one of the top four semiconductor companies in the world, Micron works with the world’s most trusted brands and is the only pure play memory company headquartered in the Western Hemisphere. Throughout its 40-year history, Micron has contributed to more than 40,000 patents, and continues to advance memory and storage technologies that enable innovations in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and autonomous vehicles. Micron’s advancements have made the United States a leader in technology and give the nation a competitive edge in data storage, security, and supercomputing. 

“In addition to its renowned technological developments, I am proud that Micron is working to transform the communities where its team members live and work, providing resources to educate the next generation of scientists, inventors, and engineers. In 2017, Micron was ranked 23 ^rd on the Fortune Just 100, Forbes’ list of companies with the best and most just business behavior. Last year, the Micron Foundation awarded more than 550 grants worldwide, and donated more than $10 million to education and community-related causes. 

“I would like to congratulate Micron on its long list of accomplishments and thank the company for the opportunities it provides for Idahoans and for all Americans. The advances that Micron solutions provide for computing across our country is considerable, and it is my pleasure to recognize its 40 ^th anniversary on October 5 ^th, 2018. We all wish Micron the best of luck and continued success as a global technology leader and world-class semiconductor company.”