By Adam Clark
Micron Technology stock was gaining early on Monday. The memory-chip company could gain from disruption at its South Korean rival Samsung Electronics if talks to avoid a strike fail.
Micron shares were up 1.7% in premarket trading. The stock is set to continue a run that has seen it rise 75% in the past month alone and taken it to a market value of more than $800 billion.
Micron and its Korean peers SK Hynix and Samsung are riding a surge of demand for memory chips to power artificial-intelligence hardware, driving up prices across the sector. SK Hynix rose 12% in local trading Monday and Samsung gained 6.3%.
However, the growing profits are also fueling labor unrest -- Samsung's unions are demanding the company allocate 15% of its operating profits for bonuses and are threatening a general walkout from May 21 to June 7 unless a deal with management is reached.
Samsung and its labor union are holding post-mediation talks this week in a final effort to reach a settlement. A walkout could hit about 3% of global memory-chip production according to Jefferies estimates.
"The supply-demand gap will likely widen further in 2027, with customers already pulling forward 2027 demand due to concerns about shortages," wrote J.P. Morgan analyst Mixo Das in a research note. "All in all, 2027-2028 could be a continued up-cycle from a blended ASP [average selling price] and volume standpoint. Near-term, for Samsung, investors continue to await clarity on the labor union issue as a clearing event."
With memory-chip supplies already undergoing a historic squeeze, any hit to Samsung's output would only increase demand for Micron's hardware.
Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 11, 2026 05:30 ET (09:30 GMT)
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