Charles Edwards
Founder of Capriole Investments, Digital-Asset Investing
Micron's knockout earnings should soon lift a stock that hasn't moved yet, likely because of end-of-month fund repositioning. It beat on revenue, margins and earnings and projects an even bigger 2027. AI supply-chain assets were weak in September, historically the worst month of the year, while October is historically the best. x.com x.comÂ
Micron's earnings should trigger a major upward repricing, with the wider AI supply chain following soon. Memory prices and chip exports are at all-time highs, and Korea is up 25% in three months. Demand is growing faster than anyone expected; reversing it would take a major blow such as hyperscaler AI capex cuts, which are not on the horizon. x.comÂ
Semiconductors could stay undersupplied for a long time as more capable AI per dollar creates more uses and drives compute demand. Micron and NVIDIA trade at low forward P/Es because investors fear peak cyclical earnings, yet current earnings show no slowdown. Shortages may worsen as AI adoption spreads, though the industry could remain cyclical; a reversal of the forced rollover trade is hoped for, not assured. x.com x.com x.comÂ
AI suppliers' profits and signed demand distinguish this buildout from dotcom overcapacity. AI leaders rose 2.9x on 3.1x earnings growth versus 7.4x on 2.1x before 2000; cloud providers have $2.3T in signed backlog. Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Meta could repay debt with about six months' cash flow, unlike 2008's leveraged banks. Micron has multiyear take-or-pay deals and ASML has orders years ahead. Memory profits are cyclical; TSMC, ASML and GE Vernova remain favored in AI's early innings. … Show more
Networking, power and compute look more durable than cyclical memory in the AI buildout. Lumentum's revenue compounded year after year across the 2010s and 2020s, unlike Micron's; AWS revenue also compounded. Lumentum, Nebius, Bloom Energy and Credo should heavily outperform SanDisk and Micron from here, though AI itself remains heavily doubted. x.com x.comÂ
AI infrastructure bottlenecks could give eight stocks as much as 18x upside. Nvidia supplies frontier-model GPUs; Broadcom and Marvell supply custom silicon and networking; TSMC makes advanced chips; Micron supplies sold-out HBM; Vertiv provides power and cooling; Palantir monetizes enterprise AI; Alphabet spans TPUs, research, cloud and apps. The list tracks where AI infrastructure spending is flowing. x.com x.comÂ
Each new AI wave is lifting demand across Micron's HBM, DRAM and storage products. Micron said training, inference, agentic AI and physical AI raise memory needs; the stock still trades at about 5x next-twelve-month earnings, leaving its growth story just getting started. x.comÂ
China's domestic market lets YMTC and CXMT threaten Micron, Samsung Electronics and SK hynix without entering US products. China receives 15-25% of smartphones and PCs and is on a path to at least 20-30% memory share over the next several years; current leaders are much too optimistic. History suggests at least a near-term semiconductor rally even if the AI trade has topped. It likely has not: agentic AI should give the trade room to run into 2027. x.com x.com x.comÂ
Micron and SK hynix pricing in a memory shortage past 2030 extends the memory-cycle case beyond the Street's 2028 expectation. SK hynix's record quarter adds evidence: per Wall St Engine, revenue rose 328% to $78.9B, operating profit rose 632% to $62.8B, and operating margin hit 80%. Agentic and physical AI could add demand as they roll out. x.com x.comÂ
Rising AI equipment demand could sustain the buildout behind Micron, Nebius, Marvell, Bloom Energy and Applied Optoelectronics. ASML says customers are raising short- and medium-term forecasts, some are interested in orders for 2029 or 2030, and its currently planned 2027-28 supply may not fully meet demand. The dip in these AI stocks might be a buying opportunity. x.comÂ
AI skepticism leaves Nvidia, Broadcom and Micron looking cheap on forward earnings. Their forward P/E ratios are 14, 18 and 5, respectively; the market may eventually stop doubting AI. x.comÂ
Improving earnings and more attractive valuations favor AI infrastructure names Nvidia, Micron, Broadcom and TSMC. Goldman Sachs charts put memory stocks at about 4 times two-year forward earnings versus an 8 times median, and large fabless chip stocks at about 13 times versus 18 times. x.comÂ
