Micron Technology sharply strengthened its position on Wall Street after reporting results for the third fiscal quarter. The company reported year-over-year revenue growth of 346%, to $41.5 billion, and briefly overtook Meta Platforms in market capitalization.
Shares of the memory manufacturer rose by 18.4% to $1,236. The company’s market capitalization reached about $1.398 trillion. This moved Micron above Meta, which has $1.392 trillion, and almost right up to Tesla, which was holding just above $1.4 trillion.
Memory has become the new scarce resource in the AI race
The main reason for the rise isn’t just one strong quarter. The market has begun to look differently at the role of memory in artificial intelligence infrastructure.
A few years ago, Nvidia became the main winner of the AI boom. Its graphics processors became the foundation for training and deploying large models. Now investors increasingly look to another layer of that system—high-speed memory.
Without HBM, even the most powerful AI chips can’t run at full capacity. Data centers need not only processors, but also huge volumes of high-bandwidth memory. That’s exactly where Micron got its moment.
Wall Street raises expectations
Ahead of the earnings report, several banks raised their stock price targets. Their logic is similar: demand for memory for AI data centers is growing faster than the industry can expand supply.
The market increasingly believes the shortage may persist not just for one quarter, but until 2028. That sharply changes the valuation of the business.
Historically, memory has been a cyclical market. When manufacturers increased capacity faster than demand, prices fell and margins quickly compressed. Now the situation looks different: big buyers are willing to pay in advance to lock in supplies.
Margins changed how the business is perceived
The report showed a sharp jump in profitability. Micron’s adjusted gross margin reached 84.9% in the May quarter. A year earlier it was 39%.
The contrast is even stronger over a longer period. Three years ago, the company was operating with about a -33% margin. Now it forecasts roughly 86% for the current quarter.
To the market, this looks like a break from the old model. Micron is no longer seen only as a memory manufacturer that depends on the next cycle of pricing. Investors are beginning to view the company as a key supplier for AI infrastructure.
Customers paid upfront for shipments
One of the strongest signals was customers’ upfront payments. The company disclosed that buyers had already committed to put up $22 billion to secure memory supplies under three- to five-year contracts.
This kind of behavior is rarely typical of a normal cyclical chip market. It looks more like a fight over a scarce resource, where access to supply matters more than the short-term price.
For data centers, memory latency could become as much of a constraint as a lack of GPUs. That’s why major clients are willing to lock in access in advance to avoid falling behind in the AI infrastructure race.
Micron secured a rare position in the U.S.
The company remains the only U.S. maker of HBM chips, which are used alongside Nvidia’s AI processors. Globally, comparable players are still Samsung and SK Hynix.
This makes Micron strategically important for the U.S. Against the backdrop of rising spending on AI infrastructure, investors increasingly evaluate not only current earnings, but also the company’s position in the supply chain.
The South Korean market has already shown how strong this revaluation can be. SK Hynix recently overtook Samsung in market value in Korea, also thanks to demand for memory for AI.
Big Tech is stoking demand
The largest U.S. technology companies continue to increase infrastructure spending. This year, Amazon, Meta, Microsoft, and Alphabet could spend about $725 billion on AI.
Every new data center requires not only GPUs, but also memory. The larger the models, the higher the requirements for bandwidth, energy efficiency, and reliable supply stability.
That’s why Micron’s growth is driven not just by traders’ expectations. It reflects a real shift in capital expenditures by the largest technology-sector customers.
The shortage is already hitting other companies
Memory problems are starting to show up beyond the chip market. Apple raised prices on its Mac and iPad lineups, citing higher memory and storage costs.
Apple shares fell nearly 6% on Thursday and lost more than 11% over the month. For investors, this showed another side of the AI boom: if memory becomes more expensive, pressure falls on companies that use such components in mass-market products.
What helps Micron earn more can worsen the margins of device makers. So the memory shortage becomes a factor not only for semiconductors, but for the entire technology market.
The forecast came in above expectations
Micron also issued a strong forecast for the current financial quarter. The company expects revenue of about $50 billion, while analysts had been looking for roughly $43.7 billion.
Earnings per share guidance was $31 versus consensus of about $25.31. That gap strengthened confidence that memory demand still doesn’t look like a short-term spike.
Just a month ago, Micron’s market capitalization had only crossed the $1 trillion mark. In less than a month, the company added nearly $400 billion in market value. For a memory maker, this is historically a sharp jump.
Can Micron catch up to Nvidia
The main question now is whether Micron can follow Nvidia’s path. The comparison looks logical, but not perfect.
Nvidia controls the key computing layer of the AI market and has a strong software ecosystem. Micron benefits from the memory shortage, but its market historically is more sensitive to capacity expansions and pricing cycles.
If demand for AI infrastructure stays high, and HBM supply grows more slowly than need, the company will maintain strong margins. If manufacturers sharply increase output, pricing power could weaken.
The biggest risk is a new wave of supply
Micron’s current story is built on a shortage. Customers are paying upfront, margins are rising, and the market is pricing in several years of elevated demand.
But the semiconductor industry can quickly shift the balance. If Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron itself aggressively expand capacity, in a few years the market could face an oversupply situation.
That’s exactly the main test. The company must prove that AI demand is resilient enough to absorb new volumes and keep high prices.
What’s next?
Micron has become one of the main symbols of the new phase of the AI boom. If the market used to focus primarily on GPUs, now attention is shifting to memory—without which AI infrastructure can’t scale.
For investors, the next few quarters will show whether the company’s growth is the start of a long cycle or an overly sudden revaluation driven by a temporary shortage.
The main takeaway is simple. Micron overtook Meta not because the market suddenly fell in love with memory makers. Investors saw that HBM has become a critical resource in the AI race. If the shortage persists, the company could strengthen its position among the biggest technology players. But to catch up with Nvidia, it needs to prove that current profitability won’t vanish with a new wave of supply.