Micron delivers blowout earnings, surges 16% and deals crypto bulls a blow

Memory chips (dujin yun/Pixabay) — (dujin yun/Pixabay)

Micron (MU) beat Wall Street expectations and forecast stronger than expected Q4 revenue, sending AI memory stocks including SanDisk (SNDK) and SK Hynix higher.
Third-quarter revenue came in at $41.5 billion versus estimates of $35.7 billion, while earnings per share (EPS) reached $25.11 compared with expectations of $20.49.
CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said there is "no line of sight" to AI memory supply catching up with demand, with shortages expected to continue beyond 2027.

Computer memory chipmaker Micron Technology (MU) delivered blowout Q3 earnings on Wednesday, lifting the entire AI memory sector, AI-related stocks and even giving crypto a slight boost.

Bitcoin BTC$59,249.85 climbed back above $60,000 after markets closed, but bullish AI sentiment will ultimately pull more liquidity away from crypto.

Micron shares surged 16% in premarket trading on Thursday after the memory chipmaker's third quarter guidance exceeded Wall Street expectations. Third-quarter revenue came in at $41.5 billion versus estimates of $35.7 billion, while earnings per share (EPS) reached $25.11 compared with expectations of $20.49.

Memory chips have become the backbone of AI infrastructure, particularly high-bandwidth memory (HBM), which is essential for training and running large AI models. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra told analysts there was "no line of sight" to when supply would catch up with demand, with the shortage expected to persist well beyond 2027.

The company also issued strong fourth quarter guidance, forecasting revenue of approximately $50 billion, well ahead of Wall Street expectations of $43.2 billion.

The AI boom has weighed heavily on the crypto market this year, with bitcoin now more than 50% below its October all-time high, trading at the $60,000 level.

The company highlighted robotics as a significant long term growth driver for memory demand, according to a transcript of its earnings call. Micron compares humanoid robots with L2+ vehicles, advanced driver assistance vehicles that can steer, accelerate, and brake simultaneously but still require constant driver supervision, to illustrate the step change in memory demand, noting that humanoid robots are expected to require 10 times more memory and could drive a sustained, multi decade demand cycle beginning in the latter part of this decade.

Following the earnings report, SanDisk (SNDK) and SK Hynix each jumped around 13%. SK Hynix, which leads the high bandwidth memory (HBM) market, is also reportedly exploring a US listing that could value the company at around $30 billion.

AI-linked crypto miners also moved higher, with IREN (IREN) and Cipher Digital (CIFR) both rising around 3% in premarket trading.

UPDATE (June 25, 13:05 UTC): Adds paragraph on Micron's robotics outlook.

Disclosure & Polices: CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of Bullish (NYSE:BLSH), an institutionally focused global digital asset platform that provides market infrastructure and information services. Bullish owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets and CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish equity-based compensation.