New York, January 22, 2026, 16:04 EST — After-hours
- Micron shares climbed 1.6% Thursday, trading near $395
- William Blair kicked off coverage with an Outperform rating, pointing to constrained memory supply through 2027
- Higher memory prices are squeezing phone and PC manufacturers, posing a demand threat to segments of Micron’s business
Micron Technology shares climbed 1.6% to $395.54 in late Thursday trading following William Blair’s debut coverage with an Outperform rating on the U.S. memory-chip giant. Analyst Sebastien Naji highlighted that “advancements in AI compute are increasingly hindered by memory bottlenecks” in a firm note announcing the coverage launch. (William Blair)
The timing is crucial as investors now see memory more as a bottleneck than a basic resource. High-bandwidth memory, or HBM—a faster DRAM variant placed alongside AI accelerator chips—has turned into a rare component in data-center expansions. Brokers are betting that prices will hold steady longer than they typically would.
Price pressure is already hitting consumer gadgets. IDC and Counterpoint now forecast global smartphone sales to drop at least 2% in 2026, while the PC market could shrink by at least 4.9%, as makers hike prices. Counterpoint also predicts memory prices could soar 40% to 50% in Q1. “Over the last two quarters, we’ve seen 1,000% price inflation in some products,” said Tobey Gonnerman, president of Fusion Worldwide. (Reuters)
Taiwan’s contract PC maker Compal joined the chorus of warnings on Thursday, flagging soaring memory prices that could weigh on the sector through 2027. CEO Anthony Peter Bonadero called it “a true super cycle (in memory chips) that we haven’t really seen,” projecting memory costs could surge to between 35% and 40% of a PC’s materials, up from the current 15% to 18%. (Reuters)
Micron is riding the wave. In December, the company reported fiscal Q1 revenue of $13.64 billion and non-GAAP earnings of $4.78 per share. It also projected fiscal Q2 revenue at $18.70 billion, plus or minus $400 million. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra called the Q2 outlook “substantial records across revenue, gross margin, EPS and free cash flow” in the earnings release. (Micron Technology)
William Blair’s analysis zeroes in on the AI factor. The brokerage forecasts Micron, the second-largest HBM supplier, to boost HBM revenue by 164% in fiscal 2026 and then add another 40% in fiscal 2027. It also noted that HBM can fetch prices four to five times higher than standard DRAM. (Investing)
The advanced memory market remains dominated by three players, with Micron going head-to-head against Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix for HBM share. Supply constraints are boosting margins, but they also increase the risk that customers might pull back on orders outside the data center if demand weakens.
Still, this works against the bulls in some ways. Rising prices tend to attract fresh capacity, and the memory sector has a track record of quick reversals once supply ramps up. If PC and phone sales slide sharply, volumes could suffer despite steady demand from data centers.
Traders are on the lookout for clues that contract prices for DRAM and NAND (flash storage) will hold steady into Q1. They’re also waiting to see if consumer device manufacturers begin openly discussing demand hits triggered by rising memory costs.
Micron hasn’t set a firm date for its upcoming earnings report, but MarketBeat expects it to land on March 19 after the market closes, following past patterns. This will be the next key update on pricing, margins, and supply chain pressures. (Marketbeat)
