Micron Technology shares continued their upward trajectory on Monday, reaching $584.58 after touching an intraday high of $592.49. The rally extends recent gains as investors increasingly bet that surging demand from artificial intelligence data centers will keep supplies of advanced memory and storage tight, benefiting the chipmaker.
The stock's performance stood out against a mixed semiconductor landscape. Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices both edged lower, highlighting a shift in market momentum. AI's influence is now lifting legacy, cyclical tech sectors beyond just graphics processors, with Zacks Investment Research flagging Micron, Alphabet, and SanDisk as stocks drawing fresh investor flows tied to AI, cloud expansion, and firmer memory prices.
Rich Smith of Motley Fool noted a nearly 5% jump for Micron on Friday, following SanDisk's strong earnings. By Monday morning, Micron shares had added another 8.2%, buoyed by fresh price-target increases for SanDisk. Fox Advisors set a $1,500 target for SanDisk, while Bernstein raised its call to $1,750, according to TheFly.com. Smith pointed out that SanDisk trades at about 40 times trailing earnings, compared to Micron's roughly 25 times.
High-bandwidth memory (HBM) is at the core of this growth. Designed to rapidly move large data loads for AI processors, HBM differs from NAND flash (storage) and DRAM (active data). Micron supplies all three memory types, positioning it to capture multiple revenue streams from AI infrastructure spending.
The company's fiscal second-quarter results provided ample fodder for investors. Revenue surged to $23.86 billion, up sharply from $8.05 billion a year earlier. Non-GAAP earnings came in at $12.20 per share. Looking ahead, Micron guided for fiscal third-quarter revenue of approximately $33.5 billion, plus or minus $750 million. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra described memory as "a strategic asset" in the AI era, and the board approved a 30% dividend increase.
SanDisk's performance underscored the memory boom. On April 30, the flash-memory maker reported fiscal third-quarter revenue of $5.95 billion, a 97% sequential jump. Revenue from data-center clients soared 233%. CEO David Goeckeler called it "a fundamental inflection point," noting the company is increasingly focusing on data-center customers and locking in multi-year contracts.
Wall Street responded with bullish calls. D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria initiated coverage of Micron with a Buy rating and a $1,000 price target, citing a "longer-than-usual memory cycle" driven by AI demand. TD Cowen's Krish Sankar raised his target to $660 from $550, per TipRanks.
The broader implications extend beyond a single stock. Barron's recently highlighted AI as a fresh tailwind for equities, boosting legacy tech names like Micron, Seagate, Intel, Dell, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Data centers' hunger for memory, storage, servers, and chips is reopening opportunities for these companies.
However, the memory sector's cyclical nature remains a risk. TradingKey flagged Micron's plans to spend over $25 billion in fiscal 2026, warning of potential oversupply if AI demand wanes. Competitors Samsung and SK Hynix are also aggressively expanding HBM production, adding competitive pressure. For now, Micron is viewed less as a typical cyclical chipmaker and more as a gatekeeper for AI infrastructure. The key questions are whether buyers will continue locking in long-term memory contracts and whether prices can hold once the current supply crunch eases.
