source: techcrunch ai: why wall street thinks us memory maker micron is the next nvidia
level: business
micron, the boise-based memory chip maker, saw its stock soar over 236% in a month, closing at $1,132 a share and reaching a market cap near $1.27 trillion. the surge is fueled by an ai data center buildout that has created a shortage of dram and nand memory, especially high-bandwidth memory (hbm). a single ai server needs far more memory than a laptop, and companies like nvidia, microsoft, amazon, google, meta, and oracle are buying large quantities.
the supply crunch, called ramageddon, is expected to last into 2027 and is already raising prices for consumer electronics. micron reported third-quarter revenue of $41.45 billion, quadruple the prior year, with profits jumping to $28.2 billion. it forecast fourth-quarter revenue between $49 billion and $51 billion. wall street sees micron as a potential long-term ai winner, similar to nvidia.
historically, memory makers face boom-bust cycles as capacity expansions lead to gluts. micron aims to avoid this with 16 long-term supply agreements, including with nvidia and anthropic, which it says will transform its business model. analysts note demand growth outpaces new cleanroom space, supporting durable earnings. whether micron can sustain this without a downturn remains uncertain, but its brief valuation above meta and tesla highlights the ai memory frenzy.
why it matters: micron's rise shows how ai infrastructure demand is reshaping the semiconductor industry, creating new investment opportunities and supply chain pressures that affect everything from data centers to consumer device prices.
source: techcrunch ai: why wall street thinks us memory maker micron is the next nvidia