MW Micron's stock climbs, putting a big milestone in sight
By Britney Nguyen
Micron is on track to finish with a $500 billion market cap for the first time on record, less than six months after passing the $200 billion threshold
Micron's stock was up 5% on Monday.
Memory-chip makers must walk a fine line as they balance meeting current blowout demand with the risk of flooding the market with too much supply down the road. And so far, investors like the moves Micron is making to navigate an unprecedented backdrop.
The memory-chip maker $(MU)$ announced on Sunday that it had completed its acquisition of Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp.'s P5 site in Tongluo, Taiwan. The agreement, which was announced in January, expands Micron's cleanroom space in Taiwan for manufacturing dynamic random-access memory products, including high-bandwidth memory, the company said.
Micron's stock was up more than 5% in Monday morning action. Shares have gained 35% so far this year as demand has surged for HBM and other memory products related to artificial intelligence.
Based on Monday's intraday gains, Micron is on track to close with a market capitalization above $500 billion for the first time on record, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The company has quickly seen its market cap appreciate, having crossed the $200 billion threshold only in October.
See more: Micron's stock is surging as the company looks to cash in on a 'desperate' market
Micron and other memory-chip makers have been reluctant to add capacity out of fear that demand will eventually slow in what is typically a cyclical industry. Supply shortages have allowed the companies to dramatically raise prices for products. Some analysts doubt that demand will slow in the next few years and say it will take time before the major players can significantly increase supply.
Rosenblatt analyst Kevin Cassidy said in a Monday note that he expects the memory upcycle to continue through at least the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, as "meaningful new wafer capacity" won't come on until the middle of next year.
Cassidy said he expects a "slight" beat-and-raise performance when Micron reports earnings later this week, based on how much of the memory content it shipped was impacted by price increases. However, he said it's possible the price increases mainly applied to bits, or units of memory, that were not shipped as part of long-term agreements.
Micron will need to convince investors that it can continue enforcing long-term agreements as it adds wafer capacity, Cassidy said. Customers have been eager to strike long-term agreements for memory due to the shortages and rising prices. And with Micron's stock trading at a lower multiple than before the company's last earnings report in December, Cassidy said investors will want to hear that rising prices for memory are not leading to demand destruction, or a long-term decline in demand for its products that could eventually become permanent.
Read on: Micron's stock climbs on this fresh sign of booming memory prices
TD Cowen analyst Krish Sankar said in a Sunday note that dynamic random-access memory will continue to be "the tightest market" for the next two years, followed by the market for hard-disk drives and NAND memory. The HDD market is backed by long-term agreements, Sankar said, and with HDD stocks trading at higher multiples than memory stocks, Sankar said the tightness in DRAM suggests Micron could see similar momentum from long-term agreements.
However, Sankar said there's still a risk that customers are stockpiling memory inventory, which would likely lead to a downturn in the memory market.
Now that it has completed the acquisition and assumed ownership of the P5 site, Micron said it will start retrofitting the space and expects it to begin supporting shipments from the company's existing fab in fiscal 2028. Micron is also planning to expand the site for additional cleanroom space starting at the end of fiscal 2026.
"Memory is a strategic asset that dictates AI product performance, and the acquisition and phased ramp of this site strengthens our ability to capitalize on these significant opportunities," Manish Bhatia, Micron's executive vice president of global operations, said in a statement.
-Britney Nguyen
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March 16, 2026 11:14 ET (15:14 GMT)
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