Micron posts record earnings, signals upside for Samsung, SK hynix
Micron's revenue for the fourth quarter of the 2026 fiscal year reached $54.23 billion, about 4.8 times the figure from a year earlier and 6.2 percent above the $51.07 billion market consensus compiled by the London Stock Exchange Group.
U.S. memory chipmaker Micron Technology posted a record quarterly revenue on surging demand for memory used in AI, a positive signal for Korea’s Samsung Electronics and SK hynix ahead of their third-quarter earnings reports.
Micron’s revenue for the fourth quarter of the 2026 fiscal year reached $54.23 billion, about 4.8 times the figure from a year earlier and up 30.8 percent from the previous quarter, the company announced on Wednesday.
The result was also 6.2 percent above the $51.07 billion market consensus compiled by the London Stock Exchange Group. The results cover the fiscal quarter that ended Sept. 3.
Profitability improved sharply as well. Operatingincome under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles reached $43.75 billion, with an operating margin of 80.7 percent. That means Micron generated about $81 in operating income for every $100 in sales. The company’s operating margin was 32.3 percent in the previous year.
Quarterly net income surged about 11.8-fold to $37.7 billion from $3.2 billion a year earlier. Adjusted earnings per share also beat expectations at $33.42, compared to the market consensus of $31.61.
For the full fiscal year, revenue rose about 256 percent on year to a record $133.19 billion.
Micron also offered an upbeat outlook for the next quarter. The company projected revenue of between $60 billion and $63 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2027. The split difference of $61.5 billion is 13.4 percent higher than the latest quarter’s earnings and about 7.9 percent above the market consensus of $57.02 billion. Its adjusted EPS forecast had a midpoint of $38.15, also topping the market consensus of $35.40.
“Micron delivered record fiscal 2026 results, and we expect an even stronger fiscal 2027,” Sanjay Mehrotra, the Micron chairman and CEO, said.
Signs for Samsung Electronics, left, and SK hynixYONHAP
Mehrotra also pointed to strategic customer agreements as supporting the sustainability of the company’s performance. Such agreements, under which customers secure memory supplies in advance, give Micron greater visibility into future demand.
Foreign media highlighted how booming demand for AI memory is also pushing up prices for conventional memory products.
Reuters reported that orders received by Micron far exceed its production capacity and that the AI memory boom has tightened supplies of conventional chips and driven prices higher. Growing demand for AI products, including high bandwidth memory, or HBM, is also affecting the supply-demand balance for conventional memory.
Micron’s strong earnings and upbeat outlook could bode well for Samsung Electronics and SK hynix as they prepare to report third-quarter results. Growing demand for memory used in AI servers and rising prices for conventional dynamic random-access memory, or DRAM, and NAND flash could help boost earnings at both companies.
Micron shares closed unchanged at $1,065.11 in regular New York trading on Wednesday before gaining in after-hours trading following the earnings release.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
