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Artificial intelligence has created a handful of corporate winners, but one company has towered above the rest. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA<\/a> | NVDA Price Prediction<\/a>) became the face of the AI revolution as demand for its chips exploded, pushing its market value to roughly $4.8 trillion. Even after a pullback of nearly 16% from its all-time high, most investors still view Nvidia as one of the strongest long-term ways to invest in AI.<\/p>\n That narrative has become so dominant that many investors may be overlooking another AI beneficiary posting numbers that look even stronger than Nvidia\u2019s did at a similar point in its growth cycle: Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU<\/a>).<\/p>\n Micron\u2019s Latest Earnings Were Hard to Ignore<\/p>\n Micron reported fiscal Q3 2026 earnings yesterday showing the memory-chip maker delivered stunning results<\/a> that cleared Wall Street\u2019s expectations by a wide margin.<\/p>\n Metric Revenue EPS The market\u2019s reaction reflected just how far ahead of expectations Micron landed. Shares are surging 18% in pre-market trading this morning.<\/p>\n The key takeaway wasn\u2019t simply that Micron beat estimates. It was the scale of the business it has become<\/a>. Revenue reached $41.5 billion in a single quarter as demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and DRAM continued to benefit from AI infrastructure spending<\/a>.<\/p>\n By themselves, though, the numbers don\u2019t quite catch the sweep of the achievement. Let\u2019s give them some perspective.<\/p>\n Micron Is Already Matching Nvidia\u2019s Scale<\/p>\n One year ago, Nvidia reported what many investors viewed as one of its most remarkable earnings reports. In its fiscal 2026 first-quarter earnings release, the company generated:<\/p>\n Revenue of $44.1 billion Those figures represented revenue growth of 69% and profit growth of 26% year over year. The market rewarded Nvidia handsomely for those results. Its stock soared 34% in the three months between its Q1 and Q2 earnings reports, and it added $1.13 trillion in market valuation.<\/p>\n Surprisingly, Micron\u2019s latest quarter stacks up even better on several measures. While its revenue of $41.5 billion was only modestly below Nvidia\u2019s $44.1 billion from a year ago, Micron generated approximately $28.2 billion in profits. In other words, Micron is already producing substantially more profit than Nvidia was at this stage.<\/p>\n That comparison alone deserves investors\u2019 attention. Yet the guidance may be even more compelling.<\/p>\n The Valuation Gap Is Hard to Ignore<\/p>\n Micron\u2019s management expects fiscal Q4 revenue of roughly $50 billion and net income of approximately $35 billion. Compare that with Nvidia\u2019s next quarter from last year<\/a>:<\/p>\n Company Snapshot Nvidia (one year ago) Micron (Q4 guidance) Micron is forecasting higher revenue and more profit than Nvidia generated during the period that helped cement its reputation as the premier AI stock. Yet the valuation difference remains enormous.<\/p>\n Nvidia market cap one year ago: approximately $3.8 trillion That means Micron is generating comparable \u2014 and in some cases superior \u2014 operating results on an absolute and percentage basis while carrying a valuation just one-third the size.<\/p>\n Granted, the comparison is not perfectly apples-to-apples. The AI market of 2025 and the AI market of 2026 are not identical. Today\u2019s industry faces challenges including land constraints for data centers, water availability concerns, power bottlenecks, component shortages, and investor scrutiny over whether massive AI spending will generate adequate returns.<\/p>\n If Nvidia\u2019s exact circumstances from a year ago were transplanted into today\u2019s environment, the outcome might not be identical.<\/p>\n Key Takeaway<\/p>\n
\nReported
\nAnalyst Estimate<\/p>\n
\n$41.5 billion
\n$35.1 billion<\/p>\n
\n$25.11
\n$20.39<\/p>\n
\nNet income of $18.8 billion<\/p>\n
\nRevenue
\nNet Income<\/p>\n
\n$46.7 billion
\n$25.8 billion<\/p>\n
\n$50.0 billion
\n$35.0 billion<\/p>\n
\nMicron market cap today: approximately $1.18 trillion<\/p>\n