Micron Technology shares rose 4% on Friday to close at $1,015.80, extending a two-day gain of nearly 10% and adding another 0.20% after hours. The move came ahead of the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings report on Sept. 30 and followed a new data-center memory demonstration that investors viewed as a sign of future AI and server demand.
Micron said it demonstrated what it calls the world’s first 512GB DDR5 RDIMM, built for next-generation servers and capable of speeds up to 9,200 MT/s. The module consumes about 16 watts, compared with roughly 44.2 watts for four 128GB modules providing the same capacity, a power reduction of more than 60%. In certain analytics workloads, Micron said the new module can deliver up to 1.4 times the performance of 256GB DDR5 configurations. A 24-slot dual-socket server could support as much as 12TB of DDR5 DRAM.
AMD and Intel are validating the new memory technology for future server platforms, with volume production planned for the second half of 2027. While the timeline limits near-term financial impact, Micron says the product shows the memory capacity being developed for future AI, analytics and database workloads. The company has also been signing longer-term agreements: in June, Micron said 16 strategic agreements were expected to provide $22 billion in cash deposits and related commitments, and it has reported about $100 billion in remaining performance obligations.
For the upcoming earnings, Micron previously guided to roughly $50 billion in fourth-quarter revenue and an 86% gross margin. Goldman Sachs analyst James Schneider expects revenue of $51.9 billion, an 87.3% gross margin and adjusted EPS of $32.54, while Wall Street consensus stands at about $50.5 billion, 87% and $31.40 respectively. Hedge fund holders of Micron rose to 184 in the second quarter from 154 in the first quarter, and short interest stood at 29.7 million units as of Aug. 31, or 2.64% of the public float.
Meanwhile, China’s ChangXin Memory Technologies, or CXMT, said it has begun mass production using its fifth-generation DRAM platform. The company announced the development at the World Manufacturing Convention in Hefei, saying the process can produce at least 50% more gross dies per wafer than its previous generation. CXMT reduced the spacing of key memory structures to 11.95 nanometers using quadruple patterning. It also launched two 24-gigabit LPDDR5X memory products aimed at smartphones and portable electronics, with both versions already in mass production.
TrendForce data cited in reports put CXMT at 9.5% of global DRAM revenue in the second quarter of 2026. Samsung remained the largest supplier at 39.4%, followed by SK Hynix at 24.9% and Micron at 23.3%. CXMT reported revenue of 150.31 billion yuan, about $22.4 billion, in the first half of 2026, an increase of 873.64% from a year earlier. Because Micron and SK Hynix have been directing more production capacity toward high-bandwidth memory and high-capacity server memory for AI systems, the immediate overlap with CXMT’s mobile-focused products remains limited, though competitive pressure could rise if CXMT expands further into server DRAM or HBM.
