Fueled by the powerful bull market logic of a "memory supercycle," shares of U.S. memory chip giant Micron Technology (MU.US) have surged approximately 180% year-to-date. To focus its production capacity on meeting the exponentially growing demand for memory chips from large-scale AI data centers, Micron even announced in early December that it would halt sales of memory products to individual consumers in the PC/DIY market. This underscores the soaring demand for high-performance data center-grade DRAM and NAND products amid the global AI infrastructure boom.
A recent Wells Fargo research report highlights that whether it's Google's massive TPU AI computing clusters or Nvidia's AI GPU clusters, they all rely on HBM memory systems fully integrated with AI chips. Additionally, tech giants accelerating the construction or expansion of AI data centers must purchase server-grade DDR5 memory and enterprise-class high-performance SSDs/HDDs in bulk. Micron is strategically positioned across three core memory segments: HBM, server DRAM (including DDR5/LPDDR5X), and high-end data center SSDs, making it one of the most direct beneficiaries of the "AI memory + storage stack" and a prime recipient of AI infrastructure's "super dividends."
The robust earnings recently reported by global memory leaders Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, Western Digital, and Seagate have prompted Wall Street firms like Morgan Stanley to declare the arrival of a "memory supercycle." This reflects the exponential expansion in demand for DRAM/NAND products, driven by the global surge in AI training/inference computing needs and the recovery of consumer electronics demand fueled by on-device AI. Notably, Micron's highest-revenue segment—HBM memory and server-grade high-performance DDR5—is leading this growth, alongside a recent spike in demand for enterprise SSDs in the NAND sector.
The latest semiconductor industry outlook from WSTS projects that the global chip demand expansion will continue strongly into 2026. Even previously sluggish segments like MCUs and analog chips are expected to enter a robust recovery phase. Following a strong rebound in 2024, WSTS forecasts a 22.5% growth in the global semiconductor market in 2025, reaching $772.2 billion—higher than its spring projection. By 2026, the market could expand further to $975.5 billion, nearing SEMI's $1 trillion target for 2030, implying a 26% year-over-year surge.
Wall Street giants Morgan Stanley, Citi, Loop Capital, and Wedbush argue that the global AI infrastructure investment wave, centered on AI computing hardware, is far from over—it’s only just beginning. Driven by unprecedented "AI inference-side computing demand," this wave could reach $3–4 trillion by 2030.
**DRAM Market Set to Soar in 2026, Micron Among Top Beneficiaries** Wells Fargo's latest report notes that as the DRAM industry—including HBM systems—is poised for over 100% year-over-year sales growth by 2026, Micron, the U.S.-based memory giant and the world’s third-largest DRAM supplier, stands as a key beneficiary. The bank reaffirmed its $300 price target and "Overweight" rating for Micron, which closed at $232.51 on Tuesday.
TrendForce has raised its DRAM industry revenue forecasts for CY25 and CY26 to approximately $165.7 billion (+73% YoY) and $333.5 billion (+101% YoY), respectively—a significant upgrade from prior estimates of $162.6 billion (+70%) and $300.6 billion (+85%). Wells Fargo analyst Aaron Rakers emphasized Micron’s upcoming earnings report (due after market close on December 17) and its advanced 1γ (1-gamma) DRAM node, expected to account for 38% of bit output by late 2026, up from just 12% in 2025. In contrast, Samsung and SK Hynix are projected to reach only 11% and 25% adoption of equivalent nodes by then.
**Micron: Indispensable to Both "Google AI" and "OpenAI" Chains** As OpenAI’s GPT-5.2—a powerhouse in deep reasoning and code generation—challenges Google’s late-November-launched Gemini 3, the "AI showdown" between the two has reached its climax. From an investment perspective, OpenAI and Google represent the two hottest themes in global markets: the "OpenAI chain" (Nvidia’s AI GPU-driven ecosystem) and the "Google AI chain" (TPU/ASIC-centric). Wall Street identifies three "super investment themes" benefiting from this rivalry: data center high-speed interconnects (DCI), optical interconnects, and enterprise-grade high-performance storage.
Mizuho, another Wall Street heavyweight, echoes Wells Fargo’s view that Micron will be a top beneficiary of Google’s TPU cluster expansion and the Blackwell/Rubin AI GPU demand surge led by Nvidia. OpenAI’s $1.4 trillion in cumulative AI infrastructure agreements and projects like "Stargate" underscore the insatiable need for data center-grade storage (HBM, enterprise SSDs/HDDs, server DDR5), propelling memory demand, pricing, and supplier stocks to new heights.
In hyperscale AI data centers built by OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, and Meta, HBM systems (3D-stacked DRAM) and server DDR5 are complementary "must-haves." AI server clusters now require 8–10x more DRAM capacity than traditional CPU servers, with single machines often exceeding 1TB. The shift to DDR5—offering ~50% more bandwidth than DDR4—is critical for handling massive AI workloads.
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