[DigitalToday reporter Chi-gyu Hwang (황치규)] Memory chipmaker Micron has become a Wall Street star as its share price surges. Whether the enthusiasm persists depends on how long an AI-led shortage of memory chips continues, TechCrunch reported on June 28 (local time).

According to the report, Micron shares have jumped more than 236 percent over the past month, closing at $1,132 a share on June 26. That is a striking rise compared with the years before mid-2025, when they were below $100 for several years. At one point on Thursday, Micron's market value surpassed Meta and Tesla. Based on the June 26 close, its market value was about $1.27 trillion, close to Meta ($1.39 trillion) and Tesla ($1.42 trillion).

Micron has emerged as the biggest beneficiary of a shortage of DRAM and NAND, especially high-bandwidth memory (HBM), driven by a boom in building AI data centers.

An AI server requires dozens of times more memory than a laptop. Hyperscalers including Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Meta and Oracle are buying memory in bulk, and PC makers such as Dell and HP have also begun competing to secure supplies.

The shortage, dubbed "RAMageddon", is expected to last until 2027.

In third-quarter results announced last week, Micron said revenue quadrupled from a year earlier to $41.45 billion, and net profit jumped 15-fold to $28.2 billion from $1.88 billion. It also forecast fourth-quarter revenue of $49.0 billion to $51.0 billion.

A problem memory chipmakers have historically faced is that expanding production facilities takes time and money, and by the time capacity increases, demand falls, repeatedly leading to oversupply and sharp price drops.

Micron stressed that it has prepared for a sharp demand fall or oversupply by signing long-term supply contracts with Nvidia, Anthropic and others. William Blair analyst Sebastien Naji said demand growth is outpacing the speed of bringing new cleanrooms online, adding that expanding long-term contracts improves revenue visibility and could lead to more sustainable profit growth.