Architect of Alpha
Long-Term Stock Investor
Micron is riding the AI memory supercycle: HBM for AI accelerators is sold out and prices are exploding, turning a former commodity price-war player into the hottest shovel-seller in the AI gold rush. From Q4 FY25 to Q4 FY26, revenue rose 379% to $54.2B, operating income rose about 12x to $43.8B, and EPS jumped from $2.86 to $33.36. x.comÂ
Micron's ordinary memory could see tighter supply because HBM consumes far more factory capacity than conventional DRAM. Meeting AI demand could thus extend Micron's opportunity beyond AI memory. 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
Micron's roughly $1.37 trillion valuation already prices a durable rise in through-cycle earnings that memory's history has never shown. A reverse DCF at 9% WACC and 2% growth implies about $95 billion of steady cash flow, versus a record $9.2 billion and a ten-year average near $1.9 billion. At a 30% FCFF margin that needs about $317 billion of revenue, over 8x fiscal 2025 sales. The HBM bull case is real, but fiscal 2023's swing to a -37% operating margin shows how fast pricing reverses. 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
Micron's numbers have already validated the thesis, and the memory cycle still looks extremely tight. Fiscal Q3 revenue was $41.46B versus $9.30B a year earlier, non-GAAP EPS reached $25.11 and adjusted FCF $18.3B, with cloud memory and core data center gross margins of 83% and 87%. Micron is shipping HBM4 in volume, with HBM4E due in 2027, while industry reports point to worsening DRAM and NAND shortages as AI consumes enormous amounts of memory. x.comÂ
Inflation, rising rates, Chinese competition and rising AI-related financial costs are pressuring the memory market. Micron, Samsung and SK hynix look exposed; waiting for the cycle to turn. x.com x.comÂ
Micron's surging memory revenue points to a supercycle. Its segment and NAND revenue charts show a sharp recent acceleration, while the stock tests its rising 30-week average. x.comÂ
Micron looks like a bargain at about 5x forward earnings with 380% sales growth and net profit up 11x, in an AI compute environment where every data point is extremely bullish. A quoted post cites OpenAI nearing $70B in ARR, AI agents becoming a new secular demand driver, record Korean memory-chip exports, and Micron's big beat-and-raise with demand extending another year. x.comÂ
Micron's projections are set so high that even great years may not be enough to meet them. Samsung's Q3 results show the risk: revenue of $145.6B missed the $150.7B estimate, and operating profit of $80.2B missed $81.1B. x.comÂ
Micron's AI memory-chip sales and accelerating growth support its upside case. Its 3.3/5 WATCH rating reflects a business with 60% of sales from cloud and data-center chips, 64 cents of profit per sales dollar and 256% sales growth last year. At the Oct. 15 close of $878.84, it traded about 42% below estimated fair value of $1,512.34. The case needs strong sales growth and expanding margins and cash flow; slower growth or a price outrunning the business are warning signs. x.comÂ
