New York, Jan 23, 2026, 16:16 ET — After-hours
- Micron shares ended up 0.5% after a wide intraday swing.
- Rising memory prices are starting to bite PC and phone makers, even as suppliers keep pricing power.
- A fresh $500 target from HSBC puts the next few weeks of pricing signals back in focus.
Micron Technology, Inc. (MU.O) shares closed up 0.5% at $399.58 on Friday, after trading between $390.80 and $411.90.
The stock is being pulled by the same forces pushing the whole memory complex: tight supply helps pricing for chipmakers, but the bill is landing on device makers.
IDC now expects the PC market to shrink at least 4.9% in 2026, and researchers see smartphone shipments falling at least 2% after earlier growth calls. Intel finance chief David Zinsner said rising memory pricing “could limit our revenue opportunity this year,” while Emarketer analyst Jacob Bourne said it “is certainly going to show up as higher prices for consumers,” Reuters reported. Reuters
A day earlier, Taiwan contract manufacturer Compal said surging memory prices would continue into 2027 and hit the industry. “It’s a true super cycle (in memory chips) that we haven’t really seen,” CEO Anthony Peter Bonadero said, adding the “big three” makers were prioritizing AI-server high-bandwidth memory (HBM), a premium chip used alongside AI processors. He said memory chips could rise from roughly 15%-18% of a PC’s materials cost to as much as 35%-40%. Reuters
On the sell-side, HSBC analyst Ricky Seo raised his price target on Micron to $500 from $350, keeping a buy rating, TipRanks reported. Seo pointed to stronger DRAM — the main memory used in PCs and servers — and lifted his estimates for the fiscal second quarter, including a call for DRAM blended average selling prices (ASP, or the average price per chip sold) to rise 45% from the prior quarter; he also flagged server demand and enterprise solid-state drives (SSDs), storage built from flash memory, as a driver.
In a separate company filing, Micron said shareholders approved an amendment to its charter to limit certain officers’ personal liability for monetary damages tied to duty-of-care claims, and the change became effective on Jan. 21. A shareholder proposal seeking changes to special meeting rights did not pass, the filing showed.
Earlier this week, Micron said it had signed a letter of intent to buy Powerchip’s P5 fabrication site in Taiwan for $1.8 billion in cash, aiming to add cleanroom space and lift DRAM wafer output starting in the second half of 2027, subject to approvals.
But the setup cuts both ways. Memory is cyclical, and a sharper-than-expected hit to consumer demand — or a faster supply response from rivals — can turn pricing quickly, which is why traders keep one eye on end-market shipments, not just chip quotes.
Investors head into next week watching for any fresh read-through on DRAM and NAND pricing, plus signs that higher component costs are forcing more price hikes in PCs and smartphones. Micron is also set to attend NVIDIA’s GTC conference in San Jose on March 16-19, a key checkpoint for the AI hardware supply chain.
