{"id":695649,"date":"2026-05-26T20:56:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/695649\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T20:56:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T20:56:11","slug":"micron-joins-1-trillion-club-as-ai-race-powers-memory-chip-boom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/695649\/","title":{"rendered":"Micron joins $1-trillion club as AI race powers memory chip boom"},"content":{"rendered":"

Micron Technology (MU-Q<\/a>) briefly topped US$1 trillion in market value for the first time on Tuesday, crowning a dizzying rally that has cemented the U.S.\u2019s largest memory chipmaker as one of the standout winners of the AI boom. <\/p>\n

Micron\u2019s shares were \u2060last up \u200b17.4 per cent at US$881.6 after rising as much as 19.3 per cent earlier in the session, with Tuesday\u2019s boost coming after brokerage UBS increased its price target on the stock to US$1,625 from US$535 – the highest among the 46 brokerages covering the company, according to LSEG data.<\/p>\n

The milestone, which underscores memory chips\u2019 central role in AI infrastructure, also reflects \u200ba broader shift in the AI trade as investors seek out companies \u200cthat can benefit from Big Tech\u2019s massive spending plans after initially crowding into makers of graphics processors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe need for pure memory has increased rapidly over very short periods of time, and clearly, Micron sits at the center of it,\u201d said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth. \u201cToday\u2019s crossing of the US$1-trillion mark for Micron is just an exclamation \u200cpoint on the \u200bstory of the massive amount \u200cof demand needed to run data centers in this AI revolution.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Nvidia makes the powerful processors used to train \u200band run AI models, Micron mainly produces memory chips used to \u2060store and move data. The company\u2019s ascent gives the U.S. a strong contender in a \u2060memory-chip race that has largely been led by Asia so far.<\/p>\n

South Korea\u2019s Samsung Electronics, the world\u2019s top memory chipmaker, has already hit \u200bthe US$1 trillion milestone, while SK Hynix is also closing in. Samsung\u2019s shares surged last week after it clinched an eleventh-hour deal with its South Korean union to avert a strike, though a union representing the conglomerate\u2019s consumer electronics workers said on Tuesday it has asked a South Korean court to block a vote on the agreement.<\/p>\n

Disruptions at the world\u2019s largest memory chip maker could fuel \u2060price hikes at a time when the AI boom has already caused shortages.<\/p>\n

Shares of Micron, long viewed as one of the semiconductor industry\u2019s most cyclical names, have jumped more than eightfold in the last 12 months, thanks to strong earnings and supply chain constraints that have given it pricing power.<\/p>\n

With technology companies racing toward artificial general intelligence, customers are committing to longer-term data center investments that have fueled a sharp rise in \u2060demand for advanced memory and storage, creating a supply crunch and driving \u200bprice increases.<\/p>\n

Micron has said its entire 2026 high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chip supply is already sold out, a sign of how \u2060far demand is outstripping capacity. Its next-generation HBM4 products are now in production. The company emerged as one of the biggest institutional favorites in the first \u200cquarter of the year, according to regulatory filings. About 2,440 institutions disclosed new positions in the company, including Rockefeller Capital Management and \u200bSchroders.<\/p>\n

The entry into the exclusive club signals a sharp rebound from the post-pandemic period when memory chipmakers grappled with a supply glut as demand for personal computers and smartphones weakened due to decades-high inflation.<\/p>\n

Micron trades at 8.42 times expected earnings over the next 12 months, compared with 22.15 for \u200bthe benchmark S&P 500 index and 26.23 for the Nasdaq 100.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Micron Technology (MU-Q) briefly topped US$1 trillion in market value for the first time on Tuesday, crowning a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":695650,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,901,276,277,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-695649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-alberta","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=695649"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/695649\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/695650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=695649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=695649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=695649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}