Memory maker Micron Technology just smashed through Wall Street's quarterly earnings expectations, delivering Q4 sales of US$11.32 billion and $3.03 per share - a significant beat over analysts' $11.1 billion and $2.86 forecasts.
The beat was largely driven by record sales through its data centre business.
“Micron closed out a record-breaking fiscal year with exceptional Q4 performance, underscoring our leadership in technology, products, and operational execution,” Micron Technology President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said.
“In fiscal 2025, we achieved all-time highs across our data centre business and are entering fiscal 2026 with strong momentum and our most competitive portfolio to date," Mehrotra said.
The storage giant has doubled down - earmarking forward guidance of $12.5 billion for the next quarter.
Storage gold rush
Data centre takings more than doubled across the board this year for storage businesses. Every query, every AI model training session, every autonomous vehicle decision needs silicon - mountains of it.
High-bandwidth storage has become the new digital gold, with Micron riding shotgun alongside Korean competitors Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, in what's shaping up to be the mother of all semiconductor supercycles.
SK Hynix has quietly overtaken Samsung as the leading DRAM supplier by sales for 2025, with HBM now accounting for a staggering 77% of SK Hynix's own revenue stream.
No wonder its shares have rocketed nearly 90% this year, adding >$80 billion in market cap since January.
Semi's supply squeeze
Samsung and SK Hynix are hiking DRAM prices up to 30% and NAND flash up to 10% for Q4, marking the definitive end of the storage recession.
HBM wafers are 2-3 times larger than regular DRAM variants, meaning every slice dedicated to AI applications produces significantly fewer total units.
SK Hynix more than tripled its spending to $7.1 billion this year from $2.3 billion in 2023, whilst the total semiconductor space for data centres is projected to explode from $209 billion in 2024 to $492 billion by 2030.
The overall semiconductor industry is eyeing an 11% expansion this year alone, pushing total sales toward $700 billion.
TechInsights is more bullish, projecting a 25% surge in the last quarter, approaching $850 billion in value.
Yet geopolitical risks remain prevalent. Potential U.S. tariffs could hammer costs, particularly given Samsung's Xi'an plant and SK Hynix's Dalian facility handle roughly 40% and 29% of their NAND output, respectively.
At the time of writing, Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) stock closed at US$166.41, up 1.1% from Monday's close of $164.62. Micron Technology's market cap stands at $186.23 billion.
