#美光财报超预期盘后大涨 Micron delivers better-than-expected earnings, AI storage stocks strengthen again

At midnight Beijing time on June 25, storage chip leader Micron Technology released its fiscal Q3 2026 (ending May 31, 2026) earnings report.
The data in this earnings report is astonishing, directly leaving market expectations behind.
After the news was released, Micron's stock price rose rapidly by over 16% in after-hours trading, also driving the entire US chip and storage sectors higher.
Single-quarter results set new records, profitability far exceeds previous years. First, the core numbers: Micron's fiscal Q3 revenue reached $41.46 billion, an increase of approximately 346% from $9.3 billion in the same period last year, far exceeding Wall Street analysts' expectations of $35.3 billion.
On the profit side, even more impressive: adjusted earnings per share were $25.11, compared to analysts' prior expectation of only $20.28.
Gross margin reached 84.9%, a significant increase from 74.9% in the previous quarter. It's worth noting that gross margin in the same period last year was only 39%, more than doubling in one year.
This is already the fifth consecutive quarter in which Micron has broken its own revenue record. Not only did Micron deliver a stellar report, but its guidance for the next quarter is even more optimistic.
The company expects fiscal Q4 revenue to be between $49 billion and $51 billion, while market expectations were only around $43.2 billion.
EPS guidance is $30 to $32, also far exceeding the market's estimate of $24.46.
All four business segments posted gains, with AI data centers becoming the main growth driver. Micron is divided into four business segments, all of which achieved year-over-year revenue growth, but the standout was the data center business.
Data Center Business
Its sales surged from $1.53 billion in the same period last year to $11.5 billion, an increase of over 667%.
The massive procurement of memory and SSDs by AI servers is the core reason for this segment's growth.
Besides data centers, other businesses are not bad either.
Cloud Storage Memory
Revenue from cloud storage memory grew over 300% to $13.77 billion.
Major cloud providers continue to expand their computing power facilities, driving memory demand higher.
Mobile and Terminal Device Business
Revenue from mobile and consumer businesses grew over 250% year-over-year to $11.52 billion.
Rising device memory prices drove segment revenue up accordingly.
Automotive and Embedded Storage
Sales of memory in automotive and embedded applications more than tripled, with the proliferation of smart cars opening up a new incremental market. In addition, revenue from high-bandwidth memory (HBM) has exceeded $1 billion for the second consecutive quarter.
Besides strong sales, Micron's technology is also continuously advancing.
The production ramp of the 12-layer version of HBM4 is twice as fast as the previous generation HBM3E product. All HBM capacity for the full year 2026 has been fully booked by customers.
Industry Supply and Demand Status: Supply tightness to continue for several years
Why are Micron's results so good? The answer is simple: AI.
Micron executives clearly provided their assessment of industry supply and demand during the earnings call.
1. There is still significant room for demand-side growth
AI has become one of the most important growth drivers for the storage industry in decades. As demand for training and inference of large models continues to increase, the value of memory and storage in data centers keeps rising.
2. Supply side will find it difficult to keep up with demand in the short term
Micron management stated that driven by continuous demand from AI training and inference, the tight HBM supply situation across the industry will persist until after 2027. Building new chip factories and advanced packaging production lines requires long lead times.
The tight supply situation for storage chips will not gradually improve until 2028. In other words, the supply-demand imbalance will likely not change in the next two to three years.
Signed 16 long-term agreements, locking in large long-term orders
Against this backdrop, Micron has signed 16 long-term supply agreements with customers such as data center operators and automotive manufacturers, locking in sales for the next three to five years.
The total value of these agreements amounts to $22 billion.
More importantly, these agreements include mandatory commitments regarding the purchase volume of Micron chips.
Micron's CEO said that once all these agreements are fully executed, the company expects more than half of its revenue to come from these strategic customers.
Micron's CFO also stated that these commitments give them enough confidence to make new investments.
Stock price surges in after-hours trading, igniting the entire chip sector
As soon as the earnings were released, Micron's stock price jumped in after-hours trading, once surging over 16%.
More importantly, Micron's rally lifted the entire US chip sector.
Western Digital rose over 11% after hours, SanDisk over 10%, Seagate Technology over 8%.
ARM rose over 5%, Applied Materials over 4%, Intel, ASML, and AMD all rose over 3%.
Nasdaq 100 index futures once surged over 2%.
It should be noted here that Qualcomm also surged over 11% after hours, but its rise is not closely related to Micron's earnings.
Qualcomm held its Investor Day on the same day, announcing new progress in its data center business, which alone drove its stock price up. That is its own story.
Risk reminder: Objectively watch for market risks
The storage sector has seen huge short-term gains. Investors should not only see the positives but also be aware of potential pullback risks.
Prior to the earnings release, multiple stock technical indicators in the storage sector had already entered overbought territory.
Since the beginning of this year, SanDisk, Western Digital, Micron, and Seagate have posted gains of approximately 800%, 320%, 285%, and 280% respectively.
Most brokerages have given Micron target prices below the current real-time stock price, meaning the stock price movement has already outpaced industry fundamental forecasts.
Amid the frenzy, it's always wise to stay level-headed.
Final Summary
Micron's better-than-expected earnings report provides strong support for the logic of long-term AI storage prosperity.
In the short term, the supply-demand imbalance will not change quickly, and the profitability of storage chip companies will remain high.
From a long-term perspective, the AI industry is still in its early stages, and the construction of computing infrastructure will continue to drive demand for memory and flash storage.
However, after this round of significant gains, sector valuations are already at high levels. When participating in related investments, one should rationally view volatility risks and not blindly chase highs.