In the second quarter of 2026, the combined market cap of three chip companies—Micron Technology, Intel, and AMD—increased by about $2 trillion; Micron's stock surged over 240%, Intel rose 216%, and AMD rose 186%. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) gained 71% in the quarter, its best quarterly performance since the fund's inception in 2000.
Q2 Specific Gains and Market Cap Increases for the Three Chip Stocks
The full performance of the three companies in the second quarter of 2026 is as follows:
Micron Technology (MU): Stock price rose over 240%, market cap increased by about $920 billion.
Intel (INTC): Stock price rose 216%, market cap increased by about $480 billion.
AMD: Stock price rose 186% (nearly three times), market cap increased by about $615 billion.
The combined market cap of the three increased by about $2 trillion. In the same quarter, hyperscalers showed diverging performance: Alphabet rose 24% (best); Meta fell nearly 2% (weakest).
Micron Q3 Financial Results: Gross Margin Rose from 39% to 84.9%
Micron's latest quarterly (Q3 FY2026) financial report shows revenue more than quadrupled, and gross margin (profit after deducting cost of sales) jumped sharply from 39% in the same period last year to 84.9%, driven primarily by AI chip manufacturers significantly increasing memory purchase prices.
Intel is building chip factories in the U.S. and benefiting from a recovery in CPU demand driven by the shift of AI to edge computing. AMD also produces GPUs in addition to CPUs, but its scale in the GPU market lags far behind Nvidia.
Q2 Other Gainers in the Semiconductor Supply Chain: Arm, Marvell, and SMH
Other links in the AI infrastructure supply chain also surged in the quarter: Marvell, which produces networking equipment, rose about 200% in the quarter; Arm, which provides chip design technology, rose 134%; the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) rose 71% in the quarter, its best quarterly performance since the fund's inception in 2000.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the main financial driver behind Micron's big Q2 surge?
Micron is one of the world's top three DRAM memory manufacturers. Demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and server DRAM for AI model training and inference has surged, pushing memory prices higher. Micron's latest financial report shows gross margin rose from 39% to 84.9%, directly reflecting significant price increases.
Why is Intel regaining market attention in the AI era?
Intel's rebound is driven by two factors: first, the shift of AI inference to edge devices (Edge AI) is reviving CPU demand; second, Intel is building domestic chip factories in the U.S., leading the market to reassess the long-term value of its manufacturing strategy.
What does the 71% quarterly gain of the VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) represent?
SMH rose 71% in the second quarter of 2026, its best quarterly performance since the fund began trading in 2000, reflecting a broad recovery across the semiconductor sector. The fund's holdings include major semiconductor companies such as Nvidia, Micron, and Intel.
