After a rough start to the week, the AI trade roared back to life on Micron's earnings.
The memory chipmaker posted what 24/7 Wall St. called "jaw-dropping" results. According to Bing News coverage, Micron's fiscal Q3 2026 revenue hit $41.5 billion with earnings of $25 per share, crushing estimates and sending shares up roughly 18% to nearly 20% in pre-market trading. One report noted a 346% jump in sales.
The comparison drawing the most attention is with Nvidia. According to the same coverage, Micron generated about $28 billion in profit last quarter, exceeding Nvidia's $19 billion net income at a comparable stage of the AI boom. Barron's went so far as to declare "Micron Is the New Nvidia."
The results landed at a tense moment. As one Bing News item put it, investors had been dumping AI stocks on Tuesday over fears that "frothy valuations may be running away from reality" — and by Thursday they were "believers again." According to Yahoo Finance and Investopedia, Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq futures rose as Micron, along with Qualcomm, eased AI jitters, with the Economic Times reporting Nasdaq futures jumping about 2%.
There are signals of durable demand. Tom's Hardware reports Micron has signed 16 long-term supply agreements worth $100 billion to provide DRAM and NAND memory — though the company said it has no idea when the current RAM crunch will end.
The rally wasn't without crosscurrents. Investors were also bracing for the Federal Reserve's preferred inflation gauge, the PCE index, which Yahoo Finance reported hit a three-year high. Falling oil prices offered some offsetting relief.
Why it matters: Memory chips are emerging as a second pillar of the AI hardware story alongside GPUs, and Micron's numbers suggest the boom's spending is broadening — and may be more durable than this week's jitters implied.