The offices of Micron Technology in San Jose, California, December 16, 2025.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Micron technology Stocks were thrown into turmoil this week due to the global memory chip shortage, with the stock’s momentum driven by growing enthusiasm across the semiconductor sector.
Shares rose more than 15% to close at $746.81 on Friday. The stock is up nearly 38% this week and is up nearly 84% over the last month.
Micron had its best week since December 2008, when the company traded below $5 a share in the wake of the Great Recession. According to LSEG, the company’s market capitalization is currently over $840 billion.
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Micron Technology in the last five days
Micron is not alone among chip manufacturers. Shares of AMD rose 26% week-over-week, hitting a new 52-week high on Friday and bringing the company’s market cap to over $740 billion.
Intel rose 25% for the week and has more than doubled in the last month, marking a much-hyped comeback for the CPU maker.
Demand for memory chips is becoming the hallmark of the current phase of AI expansion, driven by total investments from hyperscalers that could top $1 trillion by the end of next year, according to Bank of America and Evercore.
While graphics processing units (GPUs) have been the hardware focus of AI construction, memory, storage and CPUs are increasingly stealing the spotlight.
Amid memory chip shortages, prices and margins have risen for memory makers, while hyperscalers have complained about rising costs for end-use goods and services.
DRAM and NAND are the two most popular memory types. DRAM is faster and more demanding, while flash-based NAND is slightly slower and more reliable. Both are essential for AI processing.
Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix together produce more than 90% of the world’s DRAM, according to multiple equity research reports.
Like Micron, South Korean memory chip makers are also in turmoil. Samsung joined the trillion dollar valuation club this week along with companies like Apple, alphabet And Microsoft.
Reuters reported on Friday that SK Hynix is fielding numerous offers from global technology companies looking to invest in new, memory-specific production lines to increase production.
One offering was an equipment financing agreement with the company’s customers related to ultraviolet lithography machines, the news outlet reported.
“MU remains well-positioned across the memory landscape as state-of-the-art DRAM nodes help reduce costs compared to last year, while in NAND, increasing layer count leads to better costs and an increase in wafer capacity,” Mizuho analyst Vijay Rakesh wrote in a research note this week.
Micron has captured a larger share of the broader retail trade in recent months, researchers said. According to Vanda Research, net purchases rose to their highest level in two years in mid-April.
That’s despite retail investor stock purchases overall being slightly weaker in recent months compared to recent years, Viraj Patel, a strategist at Vanda, said in comments to CNBC on Friday. “So Micron arguably commands a much larger share of retail flow and attention,” he added.
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