Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) surged 18-19% on May 26, surpassing a $1 trillion market capitalization for the first time.
The catalyst was UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri raising his price target from $535 to $1,625—the highest among all 46 Wall Street analysts covering Micron. This target implies more than double the upside potential for Micron’s stock based on last Friday’s closing price of $751.
48 Days vs. 490 Days: The Fastest Trillion-Dollar Sprint in History
Micron's achievement is more than just "another trillion-dollar company."
According to Dow Jones market data, Micron reached the trillion-dollar market cap club in just 48 trading days after first surpassing $500 billion—a pace ten times faster than NVIDIA, which took approximately 490 trading days, Apple, which took around 1,520 trading days, and Berkshire Hathaway, which required about 1,580 trading days.
This means Micron is the 12th U.S. company to reach a $1 trillion market capitalization, and the first headquartered in Boise, Idaho. Over the past month, its stock has surged approximately 80%; since the low point at the end of March, it has risen 180%, adding nearly as much market value to the S&P 500 as Amazon over the same period.
Potomac Co-Chief Investment Officer Dan Russo said, "From all accounts, this appears unprecedented."
UBS: Micron has no reason not to trade at NVIDIA's valuation
UBS provided a bold framework in its report: Micron is transitioning from a cyclical commodity stock to a structural growth stock supported by long-term agreements, and its valuation approach should accordingly change.
UBS noted that AI-driven demand is fundamentally reshaping the entire memory chip market. Long-term supply agreements (LTAs) lock in production and partially fix prices, potentially smoothing out Micron’s historically volatile profit trajectory. The report explicitly stated that Micron “has no reason not to trade at a P/E multiple similar to NVIDIA’s.”
According to UBS’s projections, Micron’s earnings per share will exceed $100 in fiscal years 2027 to 2029. Even at today’s intraday high of approximately $891, the forward P/E ratio is only about 8.4x, compared to the S&P 500’s average of around 21x.
Michael Rosen, Chief Investment Officer of Angeles Investments, offered a more direct assessment: “For years, Micron was seen as a commodity investment. They produced very basic products. Now, Micron has become an industry benchmark.”
$107 billion a year ago, now exceeding $1 trillion: The logic behind the AI storage supercycle
In June 2025, a year ago, Micron's market capitalization was approximately $107 billion. Today, it has nearly doubled tenfold. This upward trajectory is supported by a series of accelerating fundamental metrics.
In June 2025, Micron, in partnership with the Trump administration, announced a $200 billion U.S. investment plan to expand production capacity in Idaho, New York, and Virginia, aiming to relocate 40% of DRAM production back to the United States. The Q1 2026 financial report, released in December 2025, confirmed that full-year HBM (High Bandwidth Memory, a critical component for AI training chips) capacity had been fully sold out with prices locked in, and DRAM contract prices rose by 20% quarter-over-quarter.
By the time the Q2 financial report was released on March 18, 2026, the numbers had completely spiraled out of control: quarterly revenue reached $23.9 billion, a staggering 196% year-over-year increase, surpassing Wall Street’s expectation of $19.19 billion by nearly 22%. Gross margin surged to 75%, and non-GAAP earnings per share hit $12.20, exceeding the consensus estimate of $8.79 by 39%. Even more astonishing was the Q3 guidance: projected quarterly revenue of $33.5 billion surpassed Micron’s entire fiscal year 2024 revenue.
The underlying driver is the most severe supply-demand imbalance in memory chips in over 40 years. Data centers are projected to consume 70% of global memory chip output by 2026. HBM capacity is sold out through 2027. DRAM and NAND prices surged over 90% in the first quarter of 2026. This is not a cyclical rebound, but a structural reassessment of memory demand driven by AI infrastructure.
Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra stated on the FQ2 earnings call: "AI not only increases demand for memory, but fundamentally redefines memory as a critical strategic asset in the AI era."
Storage frenzy obscures NVIDIA's absence, as the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index becomes increasingly divergent.
Micron's single-day 18% rally drove the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index up nearly 6%, but a notable phenomenon in this rally has been NVIDIA's absence. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index has diverged significantly from NVIDIA's stock price, with memory and equipment stocks taking up the baton in the AI semiconductor momentum.
Micron currently accounts for only about 2% of the Nasdaq Composite and about 1.5% of the S&P 500, significantly lower than the over 6% weight of each of the "Magnificent Seven." However, on May 26, Micron contributed more to both indices than any single company among the Magnificent Seven.
Last Friday, President Trump mentioned Micron at a rally in New York: "My goodness, Micron is fantastic."
On the prediction market platform Kalshi, the probability of the U.S. government taking an equity stake in Micron by 2026 has reached 40%. Micron is the only U.S.-based company among the world’s three largest memory chip manufacturers, with the other two being South Korea’s SK Hynix and Samsung—a position that carries additional strategic value in today’s geopolitical landscape.
Author: Claude, Deep潮 TechFlow