My brother lives in Boise. It's a great city. The access to nature is fantastic and relatively unique. I can't say much about the rest of Idaho (I've heard there's not much to see outside the nature and the pockets of affluent little towns), but as someone who has only lived in liberal cities on the east coast their whole life, I can assure you Boise is very nice and pretty progressive.
Of course, the state, itself, is pretty conservative. So if you feel you'll be directly affected by things like abortion bans or poor education, then you'll want to be careful where you end up and how you navigate any of that. But if you're making decent money in a city like Boise and enjoy the amenities of the area and can get over the state-level politics (because, again, Boise is quite progressive and you can get weed easily, etc.), then you'd probably experience a nice quality of life.
One negative thing I’ve heard about Boise and some other smaller western cities is that they have awful air quality due to the geography settling all the exhausts and particles in a sort of bowl. Not sure how bad this is in practice though.
As you said, Boise is in a sort of bowl (more of a valley), in the winter, a cold air system can get trapped in the valley by warmer air in the mountain area. This can lead to some pretty bad air (not nearly as bad as wildfires, just not very fresh). To me, the bigger complaint is about not seeing the sun for days. Idaho has a lot of sun throughout the winter, so it's noticeable. It isn't all winter, just a week or so at a time a few times per winted, depending on weather.
Idaho has lots of guns but a homicide rate similar to Canada. Boise is one of the few substantially sized cities in the U.S. with a homicide rate in the same ballpark as European cities (around 1 per 100k). The combination of orderliness and freedom is how America is supposed to be.
Idaho has a ton of incredible outdoor activities. You list some negatives but my biggest negative is all of the white supremacist groups. I felt uncomfortable just stopping for gas and going into a grocery store with everyone staring at me.
People in blue areas of Oregon are like that too. (My wife is from there and people do stare.) That part of the country is just antisocial and not used to seeing brown people.
They certainly aren't politically progressive, but Boise is probably one of the cleanest, safest, nicest cities in the US. It is really quite pleasant, at least it was when I visited.
I’m not a political conservative and I personally wouldn’t move to Idaho, but Idaho has a lot of appeal. There are plenty of conservatives who used to live in California who moved to Idaho in the past decade due to a combination of California’s high housing prices and wanting to move to a more politically compatible state.
Additionally, Idaho has a lot of beautiful natural scenery.
Probably some of those issues are not a big problem when you have a good salary (like child/healthcare). And a Silicon Valley salary in Idaho sounds like a pretty sweet deal.
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic but it's an incredibly beautiful state, full of mountains and sparsley populated with the exception of Boise. Further many people would love the things you said (I personally am not a weed fan and enjoy my human right to own guns). Boise is a beautiful place to live if you can afford it.
The press release says something about 4 people in Boise a long time ago?
None of the quotes have anyone from Boise or even Idaho. Not the governor of Idaho, not a University of Idaho faculty.
There are quotes from Lutnick, Cook from Apple, Jensen Huang, someone from Stanford.
What's the connection to Idaho? Why put this there?
As an Oregonian, I'm a little biased, but why not put this closer to ex-Intel employees and a source of labor. As an Oregonian living now in Florida, the stories about everyone from California moving to Texas and Florida definitely don't seem true to me. My opinion is that those migration patterns hide the realities which is that you've definitely got a lot of financiers and billionaires like Sergey Brin (i.e. tax evaders) declaring they are now Florida residents. And a bunch of people outside of high skilled fields (setting aside healthcare workers) who are migrating in search of cheaper housing. But not a lot of "middle class" tech people (I've been searching for four years and they aren't here). Probably they don't want to subject themselves to the worst public schools in the country and fight the culture wars.
But the point is, how do you staff this research lab without an expectation that thousands of people will move their families there. This is a research lab, not jobs for a data center (electrician and construction).
They were founded in Boise. Boise is their HQ and where most of their developer and research staff live. I worked there for almost 9 years. They have several fabs here, all on the same plot of land just outside of town. This will add to it.
I interned at that site about 20 years ago. Took me 30+ minutes to walk from one end (where their image sensor R&D was, before they spun it off) to the other end. As a 20 year old, it was amazing to walk past all the various clean rooms, watch the robots and the guys in bunny suits do their thing. A fun experience.
Yep, the "Micron Mile" where you can walk a full mile one end to the other and back, without going outside. Very nice in the winter for stretching your legs on the lunch break. The new clean rooms they have are amazing.
Boise is a desirable place to live if you love the outdoors. And it is a capital city. If you can't afford SF or Boulder, you might be able to swing it in Boise. Of course, Boise housing prices are expensive already, and this will make it even more expensive.
If one is or a member of your family is a woman, healthcare will be an issue, many healthcare professionals in obgyn specialties fled the state when abortion ban kicked in so only the older generation of providers who stuck it out are left and that is a cohort that is going to get smaller and smaller leading to longer and longer queues for care, they can only lure in anti abortion obgyns so the candidate pool is small.
This has been in news for years with recent article: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/news/content/ar-AA29YwYp
The press release was poorly edited. While everyone inside the semiconductor industry knows that Micron is based in Boise, the general public doesn't. The press release should have said so rather than leaving it to the reader to interpret the 408 area codes listed for the contacts. Oh wait...that's San Jose. Boise is 208.
Fwiw the story of how Micron ended up being founded in Boise is pretty interesting.
The Clay fab is moving along, lots of trucks going through there. So I think it will be built, assuming the local NIMBY and Progressive contingent don't have their way and block it somehow (God knows they put up enough arbitrary hurdles in their way).
As someone who lives local to the Clay construction site - I'm not sure how they could be bringing it up any faster. The site is working pretty much 24/7 and progress is very visible week over week.
$10B press release
The release cost much cheaper than that; the very first words -no doubt carefully chosen - are "Backed by a $10 billion planned investment...".
I too, am happy to announce a research lab backed by a planned zillion-dollar fund over the next century. It's not investor fraud if my plans change.
Who would want to live in Idaho?
The state has an incredibly strict abortion ban.
One of the worst rates of education in the Nation.
A blanket ban on Marijuana
There is no tax on fire arms, and concealed carry is legal.
Some of the worst child healthcare in the nation.
My brother lives in Boise. It's a great city. The access to nature is fantastic and relatively unique. I can't say much about the rest of Idaho (I've heard there's not much to see outside the nature and the pockets of affluent little towns), but as someone who has only lived in liberal cities on the east coast their whole life, I can assure you Boise is very nice and pretty progressive.
Of course, the state, itself, is pretty conservative. So if you feel you'll be directly affected by things like abortion bans or poor education, then you'll want to be careful where you end up and how you navigate any of that. But if you're making decent money in a city like Boise and enjoy the amenities of the area and can get over the state-level politics (because, again, Boise is quite progressive and you can get weed easily, etc.), then you'd probably experience a nice quality of life.
The two highest grossing dispenseries in the state of Oregon sit off the first I-84 exit in Oregon about 40 min from Boise..
Until Texas tracks your pregnancy with Flock cameras and arrests you for seeking an abortion out of state. OR tells Idaho about it....
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/10/flock-safety-and-texas...
Moving to Idaho, and giving these states a tax base with which to further perpetuate these fascist policies is not a winning solution.
Moving to Idaho and voting on the other hand...
One negative thing I’ve heard about Boise and some other smaller western cities is that they have awful air quality due to the geography settling all the exhausts and particles in a sort of bowl. Not sure how bad this is in practice though.
The main two issues are wildfire and inversion.
As you said, Boise is in a sort of bowl (more of a valley), in the winter, a cold air system can get trapped in the valley by warmer air in the mountain area. This can lead to some pretty bad air (not nearly as bad as wildfires, just not very fresh). To me, the bigger complaint is about not seeing the sun for days. Idaho has a lot of sun throughout the winter, so it's noticeable. It isn't all winter, just a week or so at a time a few times per winted, depending on weather.
But otherwise, Boise's air is quite clean.
Wildlife season does not help either and fires are getting worse
Idaho has lots of guns but a homicide rate similar to Canada. Boise is one of the few substantially sized cities in the U.S. with a homicide rate in the same ballpark as European cities (around 1 per 100k). The combination of orderliness and freedom is how America is supposed to be.
It has a similar median household income to California once you adjust for cost of living: https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/1nemaep/oc....
It has among the lowest income inequality in the country: https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/income-ineq.... And similar income mobility to the California or New York: http://www.equality-of-opportunity.org/neighborhoods/.
It has a lower poverty rate than California or New York: https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2025/09/spm-below-off....
Better education than California and better on most subtests than New York: https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/profiles/stateprofile?sfj=...
Idaho has a ton of incredible outdoor activities. You list some negatives but my biggest negative is all of the white supremacist groups. I felt uncomfortable just stopping for gas and going into a grocery store with everyone staring at me.
People in blue areas of Oregon are like that too. (My wife is from there and people do stare.) That part of the country is just antisocial and not used to seeing brown people.
Very strong anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment as well.
As someone living in Montana, I agree. It's awful up here. I don't recommend it at all. Stay in California folks!
Stay out of Hilton Head, SC too. There's gators everywhere and the coffee sucks.
They certainly aren't politically progressive, but Boise is probably one of the cleanest, safest, nicest cities in the US. It is really quite pleasant, at least it was when I visited.
Sounds great if you want to keep degenerate liberal populations out of your state.
I’m not a political conservative and I personally wouldn’t move to Idaho, but Idaho has a lot of appeal. There are plenty of conservatives who used to live in California who moved to Idaho in the past decade due to a combination of California’s high housing prices and wanting to move to a more politically compatible state.
Additionally, Idaho has a lot of beautiful natural scenery.
From what I understand Idaho is a very popular destination for Mormons, I feel like it has replaced Utah as the "Mormon State".
Probably some of those issues are not a big problem when you have a good salary (like child/healthcare). And a Silicon Valley salary in Idaho sounds like a pretty sweet deal.
Micron is not paying Silicon Valley salaries, especially not after moving you to a place where Micron is the only game in town.
sounds awesome
I'm sadly unable to tell if this is satire or not.
I can't tell if you're being sarcastic but it's an incredibly beautiful state, full of mountains and sparsley populated with the exception of Boise. Further many people would love the things you said (I personally am not a weed fan and enjoy my human right to own guns). Boise is a beautiful place to live if you can afford it.
shhhhhhhhh
It's absolutely terrible. Everyone should stay on the coasts and definitely not move to Idaho or any other beautiful rural area.
Idaho home prices are about to hit critical levels.
Why Boise?
The press release says something about 4 people in Boise a long time ago?
None of the quotes have anyone from Boise or even Idaho. Not the governor of Idaho, not a University of Idaho faculty.
There are quotes from Lutnick, Cook from Apple, Jensen Huang, someone from Stanford.
What's the connection to Idaho? Why put this there?
As an Oregonian, I'm a little biased, but why not put this closer to ex-Intel employees and a source of labor. As an Oregonian living now in Florida, the stories about everyone from California moving to Texas and Florida definitely don't seem true to me. My opinion is that those migration patterns hide the realities which is that you've definitely got a lot of financiers and billionaires like Sergey Brin (i.e. tax evaders) declaring they are now Florida residents. And a bunch of people outside of high skilled fields (setting aside healthcare workers) who are migrating in search of cheaper housing. But not a lot of "middle class" tech people (I've been searching for four years and they aren't here). Probably they don't want to subject themselves to the worst public schools in the country and fight the culture wars.
But the point is, how do you staff this research lab without an expectation that thousands of people will move their families there. This is a research lab, not jobs for a data center (electrician and construction).
They were founded in Boise. Boise is their HQ and where most of their developer and research staff live. I worked there for almost 9 years. They have several fabs here, all on the same plot of land just outside of town. This will add to it.
I interned at that site about 20 years ago. Took me 30+ minutes to walk from one end (where their image sensor R&D was, before they spun it off) to the other end. As a 20 year old, it was amazing to walk past all the various clean rooms, watch the robots and the guys in bunny suits do their thing. A fun experience.
Yep, the "Micron Mile" where you can walk a full mile one end to the other and back, without going outside. Very nice in the winter for stretching your legs on the lunch break. The new clean rooms they have are amazing.
Doh.a tiny Google search would have been warranted... Thanks, this explains it.
(It's more fun to get personal anecdotes from HN anyway)
Boise is a desirable place to live if you love the outdoors. And it is a capital city. If you can't afford SF or Boulder, you might be able to swing it in Boise. Of course, Boise housing prices are expensive already, and this will make it even more expensive.
If one is or a member of your family is a woman, healthcare will be an issue, many healthcare professionals in obgyn specialties fled the state when abortion ban kicked in so only the older generation of providers who stuck it out are left and that is a cohort that is going to get smaller and smaller leading to longer and longer queues for care, they can only lure in anti abortion obgyns so the candidate pool is small. This has been in news for years with recent article: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/news/content/ar-AA29YwYp
Reputation to the contrary, Idaho has a large and developing tech sector.
https://www.idahotechcouncil.org/tech-economy-report#data
The press release was poorly edited. While everyone inside the semiconductor industry knows that Micron is based in Boise, the general public doesn't. The press release should have said so rather than leaving it to the reader to interpret the 408 area codes listed for the contacts. Oh wait...that's San Jose. Boise is 208.
Fwiw the story of how Micron ended up being founded in Boise is pretty interesting.
[flagged]
We've banned this account. Not primarily for this comment, this other one from 6 days ago is sufficient: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49312990
How about building another fab first?
They are literally building a fab right next to it as we speak.
How about running night-shifts?
could we just skip to the last goal post move i have a busy day
How about making affordable dram?
Higher prices now pays for buildout of facilities which lowers prices later.
So they are
They will sell DRAM at whatever price the market will bear. They do make it at a affordable cost, the difference is all profit.
CXMT got your back
Aren’t they currently selling product at the same market rate as everyone else?
Due to sanctions, tariffs and capacity crunch. RAM prices are artificially held high.
Stop trolling. The vast majority of semiconductor producing companies run 24/7/365
What about leap years?
They’re building new fabs for 2028.
... can they bring the Clay fab up first? Or will Upstate NY just become a(nother) bad joke (again)?
The Clay fab is moving along, lots of trucks going through there. So I think it will be built, assuming the local NIMBY and Progressive contingent don't have their way and block it somehow (God knows they put up enough arbitrary hurdles in their way).
As someone who lives local to the Clay construction site - I'm not sure how they could be bringing it up any faster. The site is working pretty much 24/7 and progress is very visible week over week.
Sebastian: You should come.
Mia: To Boise?
Sebastian: You can knock it off your bucket list.
~ La La Land 2016