Micron
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Micron's 15x profit explosion helped ignite a sharp rebound in AI stocks on Thursday, as the US chipmaker's blockbuster third-quarter results calmed bubble fears that had sparked a global sell-off only two days earlier.

The Idaho-based group, a key supplier of memory chips for artificial intelligence, reported net income of $28.24 billion and a 346% surge in revenue, sending Micron shares up more than 15% in after-hours and pre-market trading and lifting broader tech markets from London to Seoul.

Micron Profit Explosion Puts AI Bubble Talk On Pause

Micron's numbers landed right in the middle of that anxiety and, at least for now, have put the AI bubble narrative on the back foot. In its third quarter, the company posted net income of $28.24 billion, almost 15 times what it earned a year earlier, equal to $24.67 per share.

Adjusted earnings reached $25.11 a share, well ahead of the $20.49 many analysts had been expecting.

Revenue told the same story, only louder. Sales jumped to $41.4 billion from $9.3 billion a year ago, a 346% leap that underlined just how violently demand has shifted in Micron's favour.

The group also disclosed that customers have committed $22 billion to secure future chip supplies, effectively locking in a large chunk of business at a time when demand for AI infrastructure is still surging.

The market reaction was instant. Micron shares climbed more than 15% in after-hours trading to around $1,213, valuing the company at roughly $1.16 trillion.

Over the past year, the stock has been up about 700%, one of the most eye-catching re-ratings of any large company during the AI boom and a clear sign of how central investors now see memory chips in the new computing stack.

IBTimes UK cannot independently verify Micron's internal order commitments.

Global Markets Swing Back After AI Sell-Off

The Micron profit explosion hit markets already trying to work out whether Tuesday's AI crash was a genuine turning point or just a nasty air pocket. The sell-off did not appear to have a single trigger, more a stew of worries, from sharp falls the previous day in Google and SpaceX to speculation that the US Federal Reserve might need to keep monetary policy tighter for longer.

Whatever the exact mix, investors were suddenly asking whether AI-linked stocks could ever live up to the profits implied in their prices.

By Thursday morning, the tone had flipped. In the US, futures pointed solidly higher, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq up about 2.15% in pre-market trade, the S&P 500 up about 0.75%, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average up about 0.3%.

Europe and Asia were already moving in tandem. The Stoxx 600, the main European benchmark, gained 0.6% by early afternoon.

Japan's Nikkei 225 closed 4.6% higher, while South Korea's Kospi, fresh from its 10% plunge and 20-minute cooling-off halt on Tuesday, rebounded 5.4%.

In Seoul, the swing was particularly stark. SK Hynix and Samsung, two of the world's leading memory chipmakers and together roughly half of the Kospi's total market value, had each tumbled more than 12% during the earlier rout, dragging the index lower with them.

On Thursday, SK Hynix shot up 13% after unveiling plans to list on Nasdaq in the US, joining Micron in what is now a small but formidable group of AI-exposed companies with valuations north of $1 trillion.

Why The Micron Profit Explosion Matters For AI

For starters, Micron is not just another chip name beating earnings estimates; it sits at the heart of how modern AI actually runs.

The company is one of only a handful globally able to manufacture advanced memory chips at scale, the high-bandwidth components that sit alongside processors from Nvidia and others in hyperscale data centres. These chips store and shuttle the torrents of data that AI models consume and generate, which is why they are in such brutally short supply.

The vast data centres being built by cloud and social giants, including Amazon, Microsoft, Google and Meta, are soaking up that supply at speed.

These companies have collectively earmarked hundreds of billions of dollars in capital expenditure this year, and a significant slice of that is going into AI-heavy facilities that need high-bandwidth memory in staggering volumes.

Micron has already told investors that its entire 2026 output of these specialised chips is sold out under fixed-price contracts.

Chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra framed the results as proof of what he called the 'strategic value of memory in the AI era.'

Micron highlighted a string of multi-year customer agreements that it believes will make earnings more durable and predictable.

Profit Margins That Shocked Even AI Bulls

The company reported a gross margin of around 85% for the quarter, a level that now rivals, and in some cases tops, the margins of bigger technology names such as Nvidia and Meta.

New fabrication plants are not expected to add significant capacity until 2028, which hands existing producers unusual pricing power. For now, that power is flowing straight into Micron's income statement.

The company's guidance suggests the boom is still accelerating rather than fading.

Micron forecasts revenue of around $50 billion in the current quarter and adjusted earnings of roughly $31 a share. It plans to lift capital spending to about $27 billion this fiscal year and has signalled another jump in 2027 as it races to keep up with orders.

The turnaround came after a brutal Tuesday session in which investors dumped AI and chip names almost indiscriminately, spooked by the sense that valuations had run far ahead of reality.

Micron's own stock fell 13% in that rout, while South Korea's Kospi plunged 10%, tripping a circuit breaker, and big US tech names tied to the AI boom also slid as traders fretted over possible US interest rate hikes and a sudden wobble in market darlings like Google and SpaceX.

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