Remember when everyone was doom-scrolling about AI being overhyped? Well, Micron Technology just walked into the room and said “hold my beer.”
The memory chip maker dropped their Q1 earnings Wednesday night, and let’s just say Wall Street analysts are currently picking their jaws up off the floor. We’re talking about the kind of earnings beat that makes grown fund managers weep tears of joy.
Here’s what happened: Micron didn’t just beat expectations – they absolutely demolished them. Revenue? Crushed it. Earnings per share? Obliterated the estimates. It was like watching someone show up to a spelling bee and accidentally cure cancer instead.
Morgan Stanley, those perpetually serious folks in expensive suits, basically lost their minds. They called it “likely the best revenue/net income upside in the history of the US semis industry” (excluding NVIDIA, because let’s be real, NVIDIA is basically cheating at this point). They bumped their price target to $350, which implies about 38% upside. That’s not a gentle nudge – that’s a rocket ship.
But here’s the really juicy part: while everyone’s been wringing their hands about whether AI demand is real or just Silicon Valley fever dreams, Micron’s DRAM chips – the memory that makes AI servers actually work – saw revenue surge 69%. That’s not a typo. Sixty. Nine. Percent.
Think of DRAM like the brain’s short-term memory, except for computers that are trying to become smarter than us. When ChatGPT is figuring out how to write your breakup text, it needs somewhere to store all those thoughts. That’s where Micron comes in.
The best part? Chip prices are basically doubling quarter-over-quarter. It’s like selling lemonade during a heat wave, except the lemonade is incredibly complex semiconductor technology and the heat wave is humanity’s desperate attempt to build robot overlords.
Bank of America got so excited they upgraded Micron from “Neutral” to “Buy” and raised their earnings estimates by 62% for this year and 80% for next year. When BofA gets that enthusiastic, you know something’s up.
Even the contrarians are bullish. Paul Meeks from Freedom Capital Markets thinks the AI infrastructure build-out has at least another year or two of runway. His take? “A $300 price target looks achievable, and it could even go higher.” Translation: buckle up, buttercup.
The timing couldn’t be better. While Oracle and other AI darlings have been stumbling around like they’ve had too much punch at the company party, Micron just proved that underneath all the hype, there’s actual, honest-to-goodness demand for the nuts and bolts that make AI work.
And here’s the kicker: Micron stock is up almost 200% this year. That’s not just beating NVIDIA (28%) and AMD (65%) – that’s lapping them while doing victory donuts.
So while everyone else is debating whether AI is the future or just expensive autocomplete, Micron is quietly making bank selling the memory that makes it all possible. Sometimes the best investment isn’t the flashiest company – it’s the one selling shovels during the gold rush.
Now excuse me while I go explain to my portfolio why I didn’t see this coming.