New York, Feb 22, 2026, 10:08 (EST) — Trading wrapped up for the day; the markets aren’t open.
Micron Technology, Inc. (MU.O) added 2.6% to finish Friday at $428.17, then edged down about 0.3% after hours. U.S. markets are shut Sunday, so traders will pick up the memory-chip story again when Monday trading kicks off.
South Korean outlets are zeroing in on high-bandwidth memory prices once more. Barron’s, citing Chosun Daily, reports that Samsung Electronics is eyeing a 20% to 30% price jump for its HBM4 chips, compared to the previous HBM3E series. Moves like this tend to catch the eye of memory sector investors—Micron among them.
AI’s push into nearly every corner of tech is fueling a surge in demand for memory chips—timing matters here. Micron CFO Mark Murphy told Reuters Breakingviews that data-center spending by the biggest tech companies could rocket from $200 billion this year to nearly $800 billion by 2026.
Shares of Micron surged Friday, lifted by a broader rally in U.S. equities after the Supreme Court struck down President Donald Trump’s global tariffs. Trump fired back, announcing plans to impose a fresh 10% global tariff for 150 days. “Today is a removal of some uncertainty,” Mike Dickson, head of research and quantitative strategies at Horizon Investments, told Reuters. Reuters
Semiconductor stocks rallied, lifting the Philadelphia chip index up about 1.1% on Friday. The move pushed the group higher as the weekend approached.
High-bandwidth memory, or HBM, is a premium DRAM type that stacks chips to boost data speed and cut power use. It sits next to AI server processors, and even small moves in its price or supply can quickly shake up profit outlooks.
But it’s not a straight shot. If higher prices spark a fast supply surge, or if AI server demand pulls back, memory prices might tumble as abruptly as they ran up. Volatility is par for the course in this sector.
Investors are jittery as the week begins, eyes peeled for fresh AI earnings. “It’s hard for Nvidia to surprise when everyone expects it to surprise,” Marta Norton, chief investment strategist at Empower, told Reuters in its Week Ahead note. The focus: any clues on how much the major cloud “hyperscalers” could shell out for infrastructure this quarter. Reuters
Nvidia reports earnings Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 2 p.m. Pacific. Traders usually lean on the company’s readout on orders and demand—it often sets the tone for the entire AI hardware sector, pulling in names like Micron’s high-performance memory.
