Micron, the memory chip maker of Boise, Idaho, has captured the heart of Wall Street. Whether the love endures will largely depend on how long the AI-driven memory chips last.
Micron promises that it has established its position for a long time, which will allow it to withstand sudden drops in demand or excess capacity of supply. And Wall Street is a believer, helping Micron briefly surpass the market value of Meta and Tesla for the first time on Thursday, though it floated back down on Friday to nearly match them.
Specifically, Micron closed Friday’s trading with a market value close to $1.27 trillion, while Meta was at $1.39 trillion and Tesla was at $1.42 trillion. Micron’s stock is up 236% in the past month alone, closing Friday at $1,132 a share. In comparison, it spent years before mid-2025 below $100 per share.
It’s a confusing rise for a company most consumers associate with small memory cards that, back in the day, were often needed to boost PCs, smartphones, or other device storage.
Wall Street isn’t sweating over that product line. Micron is benefiting from the AI data center buildout boom that has created a shortage of memory chips, both DRAM and NAND, made by Micron, especially High-Bandwidth Memory (HBM). A single AI server requires more memory than a laptop.
AI programmers such as Nvidia, as well as hyperscalers who build their own systems, are buying more memory, as are Microsoft, Amazon AWS, Google, Meta and Oracle. This forces all other companies that need memory to stock it as well, from PC makers like Dell and HP, to other types of device makers.
This supply shortage, which has been called RAMageddon, is predicted to continue into 2027. And it’s already driving up the price of consumer electronics like Apple products and Xbox consoles.
With the entire tech industry looking for more memory, Micron posted third-quarter earnings last week. Revenue quadrupled year-over-year to $41.45 billion, and profits rose from $1.88 billion to $28.2 billion over the same period. Micron also gave a positive outlook, forecasting fourth-quarter revenue between $49 billion and $51 billion.
And Wall Street, eager to find more potential AI-related public companies like Nvidia, became even more enamored.
A historic problem for memory chip makers such as Micron and Samsung is that building production facilities to increase capacity is a time-consuming, expensive task. And demand tends to fall as companies can increase capacity, creating a glut and subsequent price declines.
Micron came before any discussion of AI by emphasizing a series of long-term supply agreements, including with Nvidia and AI lab Anthropic, which are likely to protect it. The company said in its earnings presentation that it has signed 16 strategic customer agreements across the data center, consumer, and automotive market segments, which it expects to transform its business model.
That seemed to convince many analysts that the company could be another long-term, profitable investment. In a research note, William Blair technology analyst Sebastien Naji said demand growth continues to outpace the rate at which new cleanroom facilities can come online.
“Given the strong prospects for continued ASP growth in the coming quarters and improved revenue visibility due to a rapidly expanding set of long-term agreements (SCAs) with key customers, we see opportunities for long-term earnings growth and reiterate our Outperform rating,” Naji wrote.
Whether Micron can really sustain itself long-term without a bust cycle remains to be seen. But for a brief moment on Thursday, this American company was worth more than the giants of the industry.
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