Artificial Intelligence · Profile from AI Research Companion
Micron Technology
The Boise, Idaho memory maker — the only large US producer of DRAM and the smallest of the three companies that make nearly all of the world's DRAM — whose AI strategy is a bet on high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the stacked DRAM that sits beside every Nvidia, AMD and custom AI accelerator. Micron skipped HBM3, came from behind with HBM3E for Nvidia's H200 in February 2024, and by Q2 2026 held ~18% of HBM against SK Hynix's ~50% and Samsung's ~33% (Counterpoint, reported). The AI memory shortage then turned a business that lost $5.8bn in fiscal 2023 into one of the most profitable companies on earth: fiscal 2026 (to 3 September 2026) revenue of $133.19bn, up from $37.38bn a year earlier, and net income of $84.97bn, with a fourth-quarter GAAP gross margin of 86.8% (company, 30 September 2026). Its history is a lesson in the memory cycle, its present in what happens when AI makes a commodity scarce, and its future depends on whether HBM keeps memory out of the commodity trap (section 01).
At a glance
- Founded
- 1978, Boise, Idaho, by Ward Parkinson, Joe Parkinson, Dennis Wilson and Doug Pitman, with early backing from Idaho investors including potato magnate J.R. Simplot
- Headquarters
- Boise, Idaho; fabs and assembly in Idaho, Virginia (Manassas), Taiwan (Taichung, Taoyuan), Japan (Hiroshima), Singapore, Malaysia, China (Xi'an, assembly and test) and India (Sanand, assembly and test); megafab under construction in Clay, New York
- Ownership / structure
- Public, Nasdaq: MU
- Leadership (2026)
- Sanjay Mehrotra (president and CEO since May 2017; co-founder of SanDisk); Mark Murphy (CFO); Manish Bhatia (EVP, global operations); Sumit Sadana (chief business officer) (company; verify current titles)
- Layer
- Memory and hardware: DRAM (incl. HBM, LPDDR, server DDR5), NAND flash and SSDs
- Scale
- Revenue $30.76bn (FY2022), $15.54bn (FY2023, net loss $5.83bn), $25.11bn (FY2024), $37.38bn (FY2025), $133.19bn (FY2026; net income $84.97bn; capex $27.37bn net) (company); Q4 FY2026 revenue $54.23bn; Q1 FY2027 guidance $61.5bn ± $1.5bn (company, 30 September 2026); ~48,000 employees (FY2025, verify)
- HBM position
- HBM3E 8-high for Nvidia H200 (volume production announced 26 February 2024); HBM4 volume shipments confirmed February 2026 (reported); HBM share ~18% (Q2 2026, Counterpoint); "vast majority" of calendar-2027 HBM bit supply contracted at significantly higher prices (CEO, September 2026, reported)
- Public support
- CHIPS Act award of up to ~$6.1bn for Idaho and New York (finalised December 2024, reported) plus up to ~$275m for Virginia (2025, reported); ~$200bn US manufacturing and R&D plan (June 2025, reported, verify)
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Elpida acquisition (2013); the Fujian Jinhua theft case (2017–24); the 2022–23 memory downturn and record losses; CHIPS Act and the New York megafab (2022–25); China's CAC ban (2023); skipping HBM3 for HBM3E on H200 (2024); business-unit reorganisation and Crucial exit (2025); HBM4 and the memory supercycle (2026)
8 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2013
Elpida Acquisition
Acquisition (purchase out of bankruptcy)
2018
Fujian Jinhua Theft Case
Lawsuit / regulatory action
2022
CHIPS Act and the New York Megafab
Government funding / capacity investment
2022
Memory Downturn and Record Losses
Restructuring / failure (cyclical downturn)
2023
China CAC Ban
Regulatory action / failure (market access lost)
2024
HBM3E for Nvidia H200
Launch / partnership (supply qualification)
2025
Business Unit Reorganisation and Crucial Exit
Restructuring / shutdown (exit from consumer retail)
2026
HBM4 and the Memory Supercycle
Launch / results (new HBM generation in a shortage)