Micron posted quarterly results that beat market expectations, helped by a surge in memory demand from expanding artificial intelligence infrastructure. Its outlook for the next quarter also far exceeded market expectations, supporting the possibility that shortages of memory for AI could persist.

On Sept. 30, CNBC reported that Micron posted fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $54.23 billion. That was about 3.8 times higher than $11.32 billion a year earlier. On a non-GAAP basis, adjusted net profit was $38.4 billion and adjusted earnings per share was $33.42. On a GAAP basis, net profit was $37.7 billion and earnings per share was $32.87.

Its next-quarter forecast was also strong. Micron projected fiscal first-quarter revenue of about $61.5 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $38.15. Both were above LSEG-compiled estimates of $57.0 billion in revenue and $35.40 in adjusted earnings per share.

The key driver behind the results was demand for high bandwidth memory, or HBM, for AI. As high-performance graphics processing units from Nvidia and central processing units from AMD need more HBM to handle AI workloads, major suppliers have not been able to keep up with demand. HBM is a type of memory built by stacking multiple general-purpose DRAM chips.

Micron is the only U.S.-headquartered advanced memory manufacturer and produces memory products, including HBM, in the United States. As computing demand from AI models and data centres increases, HBM is becoming a key component of AI infrastructure.

Revenue in its largest business, the data centre segment, rose to $18.0 billion this quarter from $1.577 billion a year earlier, an increase of about 11 times. The increase reflects how rising AI infrastructure investment has sharply lifted demand for memory for data centres.

As memory shortages persist, it is also accelerating capacity expansion. Micron plans to invest more than $250 billion in manufacturing and research and development in the United States by 2035. It began construction of a large-scale production facility in Clay, New York, in January, and its first new fab in Boise, Idaho is set to begin DRAM production starting next year.

SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics, which lead the HBM market, are also expanding large-scale production facilities in South Korea. Micron has the smallest share of the HBM market among the three, but its market capitalisation has topped $1.2 trillion on surging demand for AI memory. Its share price has also risen more than 500 percent over the past year.

Memory shortages are also affecting the consumer electronics market. Rising memory prices have also led to higher prices for Apple consumer electronics products such as the iPad and MacBook.