Memory chipmaker Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU) leapfrogged South Korean rival SK Hynix to become the 12th most-valuable company in the world, in a rally that has more than tripled the stock this year.
Shares jumped another 7.5% Monday to $1,044, lifting the chipmaker’s market cap to $1.17 trillion. Micron is now worth more than Berkshire Hathaway, Walmart and Eli Lilly.
Wall Street has been chasing the rally higher. UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri carries the Street’s most aggressive call, having tripled his price target on the stock to $1,625 from $535 last week.
That implies another 56% upside from current levels and a future market cap near $1.8 trillion, which would push Micron past Saudi Aramco and into the global top eight.
A Memory Squeeze Is Driving The Rally
Micron’s high-bandwidth memory, the stacked chips sold to Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA) and Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (NASDAQ:AMD) for AI accelerators, is fully sold out through 2026, according to the company.
Management has said it can only fulfill roughly 60% of current customer demand, with no significant new industry capacity expected until 2027.
So far, Nvidia has largely passed the squeeze through to end customers, holding gross margins near 75% by raising accelerator and GPU prices.
Raymond James joined the chorus this week, raising its price target on Micron to $1,100 from $530, while Zacks Equity Research named the stock its Bull of the Day.
Prediction Markets Cool On A Government Stake
On Kalshi, the contract asking which companies the US government will take an equity stake in this year has cooled on Micron, with odds falling to 31% from above 40% earlier this month.
The Trump administration has been building equity positions in chipmakers and quantum firms as part of a push for US semiconductor sovereignty, including a roughly $9 billion stake in Intel Corp. (NASDAQ:INTC) last August.
Other US technology firms are priced higher on the same contract, with chip foundry GlobalFoundries Inc. (NASDAQ:GFS) at 65% and quantum company IonQ Inc. (NYSE:IONQ) at 39%. Traders may be pricing in the view that the largest US memory chipmaker, now bigger than Berkshire Hathaway, no longer needs Washington’s capital.
All Eyes On June 24
Micron reports fiscal third-quarter earnings on June 24. The company guided to $33.5 billion in revenue, more than three times what it posted in the same quarter a year ago and larger than its full-year revenue for any fiscal year through 2024.
A beat-and-raise on top of that could push the chipmaker toward UBS’s $1,625 target, putting Micron past Saudi Aramco and alongside Broadcom and TSMC in the global top eight.
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