Micron says the global memory shortage will get tighter over the next two years. The US chipmaker reported record results on Wednesday. Revenue for the quarter to 3 September rose nearly fivefold from a year earlier, to $54.23bn, the company said.
Net income reached $37.7bn, up from $3.2bn a year earlier. Gross margin hit 86.8%, against 44.7%. For the full fiscal year, revenue climbed to $133.19bn from $37.38bn. Analysts polled by LSEG had expected $51.07bn for the quarter, CNBC reported.
“We do not have line of sight to when supply and demand will return to balance,” chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra told investors on the earnings call.
Most of 2027 is already sold
Demand will exceed supply in both 2027 and 2028, Mehrotra said. The market will be tighter in those years than in 2026, he added. About 75% of Micron’s memory output for 2027 is already spoken for. Most current sales talks are about 2028, he said. Much of next year’s high-bandwidth memory (HBM) is sold out. Its prices are “much higher” than this year’s, Mehrotra said.
HBM is the stacked memory inside AI chips. Demand for it is growing faster than for ordinary server memory. Micron is working with Nvidia on what it called the industry’s first custom HBM4E product. It plans new factory clean rooms in 2028. About $25bn of capital spending is set for the first half of its new financial year. Output from new clean rooms ramps up only gradually, Mehrotra said, so they will not quickly ease supply.
Where the money came from
DRAM revenue rose 343% year on year to a record $39.8bn, Micron said in its prepared remarks. That was 73% of the total. NAND flash revenue rose 526% to $14.1bn.
The core data centre unit made $18bn in revenue, up from $1.58bn a year earlier. Its gross margin was 90%. The cloud memory unit, which sells HBM, made $16.28bn at an 83% margin. For the current quarter, Micron forecast revenue of $61.5bn, give or take $1.5bn. Analysts had expected $57bn, according to LSEG.
“Micron delivered record fiscal 2026 results, and we expect an even stronger fiscal 2027,” Mehrotra said in a statement.
Mehrotra also said Micron raised pay for every employee in fiscal 2026. Hundreds of its staff in Taiwan had threatened to strike over pay, CNBC noted.
Devices pay the price
Memory makers are giving priority to AI and server customers, which leaves less for consumer devices. Raspberry Pi has raised the price of its 2GB Pi 4 and Pi 5 by $12.50, citing memory costs. The 2GB Pi 4, once a $35 computer, now costs $67.50. Memory bought cheaply in 2025 helped its record first half, but the company says that stock is largely used up.
Samsung has added $100 to most of its Galaxy S26 range. Samsung executive Kim Taewoo said this week that HBM will take almost 30% of the industry’s DRAM wafer capacity in 2027, up from 20% this year, Reuters reported.