NEW YORK, Jan 13, 2026, 16:15 EST — After-hours
Micron Technology, Inc. (MU) shares dipped in after-hours trading Tuesday following news that SK Hynix plans to pour 19 trillion won ($12.9 billion) into a new advanced chip-packaging plant in South Korea. Construction is expected to kick off in April and finish by the end of 2027. Micron dropped $7.76, or roughly 2.2%, to $338.11 from a prior close of $345.87; the stock opened at $346.24 and moved between $335.23 and $351.11 during the session. Macquarie Equity Research noted SK Hynix held 61% of last year’s high-bandwidth memory market, well ahead of Samsung Electronics at 19% and Micron at 20%. (Reuters)
This shift is significant as the memory sector grabs renewed attention. Investors are wrestling with whether the shortage in advanced AI chips is just a short-term crunch or a challenge that will extend into the next spending cycle.
HBM is turning into a bottleneck. This stacked form of DRAM — dynamic random access memory — is engineered to transfer data quickly while keeping power consumption low. Its fate is now closely linked to the demand for AI accelerators and the servers that host them.
Wall Street remains fixated on the “stronger for longer” narrative. KeyBanc’s John Vinh bumped his price target to $450 from $325. Bank of America’s Vivek Arya also raised his target, from $300 to $400. Arya pointed out that “industry clean room space remains limited,” with significant equipment installs and volume production still a solid 2-3 years out. These clean rooms are critical, tightly controlled environments for chip manufacturing. Vinh went further, projecting fiscal 2027 earnings per share that exceed consensus estimates. (TipRanks)
Demand is feeling the squeeze as customers grapple with rising costs. Raspberry Pi has flagged that climbing memory-chip prices will pressure its profit forecast for 2026. Peel Hunt analysts noted a sharp market anomaly, with older chips fetching about four times the price of newer models. (MarketWatch)
That tension keeps surfacing in Micron’s tape. Price momentum and tight supply can drive earnings forecasts up, yet a fresh batch of projects — even if they stretch over years — stirs the familiar worry: flooding the market with too many bits, too fast.
Packaging plays a key role here. HBM depends on stacking and complex packaging processes that can slow down how fast supply hits the market, even if wafer capacity is available. This often keeps prices high for a stretch, only to drop sharply once the bottlenecks clear.
The downside is clear-cut. Should AI infrastructure spending slow or capacity ramp up faster than anticipated, memory prices could plunge sharply, tightening margins and dragging the sector back into its usual boom-bust cycle.
In the upcoming session, traders will be looking for follow-through from the target hikes and any new hints that rivals are speeding up capex plans. Shifts in spending strategies and customer remarks on component costs usually appear first in the memory names.
Micron is gearing up for a couple of key dates on the calendar. On Wednesday, it will pay a quarterly dividend of $0.115 per share. (SEC)
Thursday marks the next key event: Micron’s annual shareholder meeting, set for 10:00 a.m. Mountain Standard Time. Investors will be keen on any fresh insights about capital spending controls and how quickly supply is entering the HBM market. (SEC)
