New York, Jan 16, 2026, 09:36 ET — Regular session
Micron Technology, Inc. shares (MU.O) jumped roughly 6% early Friday, lifted by a wider rally in memory-chip stocks following a director’s multi-million dollar stock buy and new specifics on the company’s upcoming New York “megafab” project. The stock last traded $20.18 higher at $356.81.
This shift is significant as memory makers now offer a purer play on AI-driven hardware demand, sidestepping the overcrowded mega-cap names. High-bandwidth memory remains a bottleneck in AI servers, so any indication that supplies remain constrained usually ripples across the entire memory sector.
Retail investors have been driving the trend. A severe global shortage of memory chips is forcing AI and consumer-electronics firms into a fierce scramble for supply, Reuters reported Wednesday. Micron’s shares are up about 18% so far this year, following a 240% surge in 2025. “Memory chips are definitely one of the themes catching our clients’ attention these days,” said Steve Sosnick, chief strategist at Interactive Brokers. 1
A Form 4 filing revealed director Teyin Liu purchased 23,200 shares of Micron on Jan. 13 and Jan. 14, roughly at $337 each. After these buys, he owned 25,910 shares. 2
Micron announced it will officially break ground this Friday on its $100 billion memory manufacturing campus in Onondaga County, New York. The site will eventually house up to four fabs, with production slated to start in 2030. “Breaking ground at Micron’s New York megafab underscores our commitment to building leading-edge memory at scale in the United States,” CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said in a statement. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called advanced memory “essential” as AI adoption grows across industries. 3
Chip stocks found support as U.S. stock index futures held steady on Friday. Memory chipmakers led the advance, with the iShares Semiconductor ETF climbing roughly 2%, pushing its year-to-date gains higher, Reuters reported. Markets will be closed Monday for Martin Luther King Jr. Day. 4
Traders are looking for firmer evidence: shipment numbers, contract pricing, and whether Micron can ramp up production of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a stacked DRAM that speeds data delivery to AI processors beyond standard memory. The stock usually reacts more to pricing cues than to ribbon-cutting events.
But the risk of a downturn is never far from mind. Should AI spending stall or new capacity hit the market sooner than anticipated, prices could drop sharply—and margins would take a hit right behind.
Coming up is a holiday-shortened week packed with major earnings reports that could shift sentiment in the semiconductor sector. Intel is set to announce its results after the market closes on Jan. 22—a key date for traders looking to gauge chip demand. 5
