NEW YORK, May 4, 2026, 11:15 EDT
Micron Technology jumped again Monday, with memory-chip stocks pushing higher as investors piled into names seen benefitting from artificial intelligence data center demand, which is expected to keep supplies of advanced memory and storage tight.
Micron was changing hands at $584.58 in late-morning New York after an earlier high of $592.49. The stock was up against a mixed chip sector: Nvidia slid, and Advanced Micro Devices ticked lower as well, according to market data.
This shift is notable: AI’s momentum is starting to lift legacy, cyclical parts of tech beyond just graphics chips. On Monday, Zacks Investment Research flagged Micron, Alphabet, and SanDisk as tech stocks attracting new investor flows, all tied to AI-fueled demand, expanding cloud, and firmer memory prices.
Rich Smith at Motley Fool flagged a nearly 5% jump for Micron on Friday, following SanDisk’s earnings. By 10:10 a.m. ET Monday, Micron shares were up another 8.2% as fresh price-target increases for SanDisk appeared to buoy Micron as well. Smith pointed out Fox Advisors’ new $1,500 target for SanDisk and Bernstein’s $1,750 call, citing TheFly.com. Right now, SanDisk trades at about 40 times trailing earnings, while Micron comes in closer to 25, he added.
High-bandwidth memory—known as HBM—sits at the heart of this. Built to shuttle vast data loads rapidly for AI processors, it’s distinct from NAND flash, which handles storage, and DRAM, which keeps active data on hand. Micron supplies all three. That puts the company in several lanes for tapping into AI infrastructure dollars.
Micron handed investors a stack of new data to chew on. Fiscal second-quarter revenue jumped to $23.86 billion—up sharply from last year’s $8.05 billion. Non-GAAP earnings clocked in at $12.20 per share. Looking ahead, the chipmaker is targeting around $33.5 billion in fiscal third-quarter revenue, give or take $750 million. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra called memory “a strategic asset” in the AI age. The board signed off on a 30% hike to the dividend. Micron Technology
SanDisk’s numbers drew a sharp line. On April 30, the flash-memory maker posted fiscal third-quarter revenue of $5.95 billion, a 97% jump from the prior quarter. Revenue from data-center clients surged 233%. CEO David Goeckeler called it “a fundamental inflection point” for the company, now leaning harder into data-center customers and locking in multi-year deals. Sandisk Corporation
D.A. Davidson’s Gil Luria made waves with a Buy call on Micron and a $1,000 target, citing what he called a “longer-than-usual memory cycle” tied to AI demand. TD Cowen’s Krish Sankar also lifted his price target on Micron to $660 from $550, according to TipRanks. TipRanks
Which is exactly why the shift matters for more than just a single ticker. Over the weekend, Barron’s pitched AI as a fresh tailwind for equities, pushing up legacy tech stocks like Micron, Seagate, Intel, Dell, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. Data centers are hungry for extra memory, storage, servers, and chips, reopening doors for these names.
Still, the memory sector is notorious for its cycles. Producers ramp up when prices climb. TradingKey flagged Micron’s plans to spend over $25 billion in fiscal 2026, warning about the risk of too much supply if AI demand fades. Samsung and SK Hynix are also pushing hard in HBM, adding another layer of competitive pressure.
Right now, Micron isn’t being lumped in with typical cyclical chipmakers; it’s acting more like a gatekeeper for AI infrastructure. What comes next? All eyes are on whether buyers keep locking in long-term memory contracts and if memory prices hold up once the current supply crunch fades.
