TLDR
- Micron Technology rose ~6.8% in premarket trading Tuesday on renewed AI-driven memory demand optimism.
- Morgan Stanley’s Joseph Moore called the recent pullback a buying opportunity, projecting Q3 memory prices up ~25% from Q2.
- KeyBanc raised its price target to $1,750; Bank of America added Micron to its high-conviction US-1 list.
- SK Hynix also climbed, with its chairman describing AI memory prices as “abnormally high.”
- Micron says it is sold out of HBM production for both 2026 and 2027.
Micron Technology stock shot up roughly 6.8% in premarket trading on Tuesday, July 21, as a wave of bullish analyst notes and strong AI hardware spending expectations pushed memory chip stocks back into favor.
The catalyst was a note from Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore, who framed the recent selloff in memory stocks as a buying opportunity. Moore projected that Q3 memory prices would rise approximately 25% from Q2 levels, pointing to continued tightening in data center memory supply.
KeyBanc piled on, reiterating its Overweight rating and lifting its price target to $1,750. Bank of America made a louder statement by adding Micron to its US-1 high-conviction list. The average analyst price target across 50 analysts sits at $1,548.86, with a broad Buy consensus.
UBS also weighed in, projecting overall memory demand could rise 50% to 60% next year, with AI-specific demand potentially climbing 60% to 100%. The bank added that Micron could repurchase more than 40% of its stock by 2028 once buyback restrictions lift in December 2026.
SK Hynix joined the move, with its American depositary receipts up 7.2% premarket and South Korean shares closing up 4.1%. The company’s chairman described AI memory prices as “abnormally high” — a comment the market read as a sign of pricing power across the sector.
What’s Driving the Demand Story
High Bandwidth Memory, critical for AI training and inference, remains in short supply. Micron has said it is completely sold out of HBM production for both 2026 and 2027, giving it strong pricing leverage with customers.
The broader setup is also favorable. Tech earnings season kicks off Wednesday with Alphabet, and investors expect big AI capital expenditure commitments from major cloud players — commitments that translate directly into memory chip orders.
UBS head of equities Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi wrote that AI agents will account for more than 90% of AI activity by 2030, dramatically increasing compute demand. The firm called the recent chip stock pullback a buying opportunity.
One Risk Worth Watching
Not everything is pointing up. Google was reported Monday to be developing a new chip that would hardwire AI model elements directly into silicon, potentially reducing the need for high-bandwidth memory and data transfers. That chip is reportedly targeted for deployment in 2028.
J.P. Morgan analyst Mixo Das pushed back on demand concerns though, writing: “Memory demand has been questioned recently with reported technological and process breakthroughs reducing memory demand — but we are yet to see this in reality.”
Micron’s 52-week high stands at $1,255. The stock was trading at $915.66 in premarket, up $50.20.
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