NEW YORK, May 29, 2026, 10:05 EDT
- Micron shares rose 4.6% to $966.24 Friday morning. The stock’s market cap was above $1.1 trillion.
- The move came after new price-target increases from Wall Street and a wider rally in memory-chip names.
- Samsung’s first HBM4E samples are adding a new competitive wrinkle in the AI memory trade.
Micron Technology shares added 4.6% to trade at $966.24 Friday morning, keeping up a strong run that’s pushed the chipmaker’s market value to around $1.10 trillion. The Boise, Idaho company is seen as a standout in the stock market’s recent push into artificial intelligence.
Investors are starting to see memory as scarce infrastructure for AI data centers, rather than just a boom-and-bust commodity. High-bandwidth memory, or HBM, is stacks of memory chips that sit near AI processors and transfer data fast. HBM is now a key bottleneck for companies building big AI systems.
Micron hit the $1 trillion mark in market value for the first time this week, Reuters reported, after UBS raised its target on the stock to $1,625, the top price target among 46 brokerages tracked by LSEG. Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth, called Micron’s new milestone “an exclamation point” on soaring demand for memory and said the company is “at the center” of the trend. Reuters
Analyst upgrades gave Micron shares another boost. Mizuho’s Vijay Rakesh took his price target up to $1,150, and D.A. Davidson’s Gil Luria lifted his to $1,500. Barclays’ Tom O’Malley is now at $1,175. Investor’s Business Daily said the analysts are pointing to strong memory demand from AI.
Micron’s latest numbers have given bulls new ammo. In March, the company reported fiscal second-quarter revenue of $23.86 billion, up from $8.05 billion a year ago. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra told investors Micron set records in revenue, gross margin, EPS and free cash flow. “In the AI era, memory has become a strategic asset for our customers,” Mehrotra said. Micron Technology
SK Hynix hit the $1 trillion mark this week, joining Samsung Electronics and Micron as memory chip prices kept rising. That comes as demand for high-end chips has squeezed supply. “We expect memory chip demand to continue exceeding supply by 2028 to keep price levels high,” said Kim Young-gun, analyst at Mirae Asset Securities in Seoul, in a note quoted by Reuters. Investing.com
Samsung added the main risk note Friday. The company said it has shipped samples of its 12-layer HBM4E chips, calling them over 20% faster than earlier HBM4 products. Reuters said that might help Samsung claw back share from SK Hynix and Micron. Jeff Kim, head of research at KB Securities-Jefferies, said early movers in HBM usually win most of the orders.
This is the risk traders watch. If Samsung’s HBM4E passes qualifications soon with major AI buyers, Micron could see price and market share headwinds right as bulls have lifted their hopes for the stock. If AI capital spending pauses more widely, or if DRAM supply ramps up faster — DRAM is the main working memory for computers and servers — it would challenge the view that this time is different.
Wall Street’s big indexes started Friday higher, after all three closed at new highs the day before. The tape is still supportive for now. Regular trading hours for the Nasdaq are 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Eastern, Monday through Friday.
