Micron Technology forecast first-quarter revenue substantially above Wall Street expectations Wednesday, providing fresh evidence that artificial-intelligence infrastructure spending continues to strain global memory-chip capacity.
Micron expects approximately $61.5 billion in fiscal first-quarter revenue, plus or minus $1.5 billion.
Analysts surveyed by LSEG had expected approximately $57.02 billion.
The company projected adjusted earnings of $38.15 per share, plus or minus $1, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $35.40.
The guidance followed another exceptionally strong quarter.
Micron reported fiscal fourth-quarter revenue of $54.23 billion, more than four times the year-earlier level and above the approximately $51.07 billion expected by analysts.
Adjusted earnings reached $33.42 per share, also exceeding expectations.
The principal driver remains artificial intelligence.
High-bandwidth memory, or HBM, is increasingly essential for advanced AI accelerators because it allows enormous amounts of data to move rapidly between memory and processors.
Micron is the only major U.S.-based HBM producer and supplies memory used alongside advanced AI processors, including systems built around Nvidia hardware.
Demand is currently exceeding available capacity.
Micron said long-term supply agreements have increased to approximately $32 billion from $22 billion in June, while much of its 2027 production has already been committed.
The constraint extends beyond specialized HBM.
Rapid expansion of AI infrastructure is consuming manufacturing capacity and contributing to tighter conditions across conventional memory markets as well.
Micron expects those supply-demand conditions to remain tight through fiscal 2027 and 2028 and plans substantial additional investment in manufacturing capacity in the United States and Japan.
The results matter beyond Micron.
Memory availability is becoming another potential bottleneck in the AI infrastructure buildout, alongside advanced accelerators, networking equipment, electricity and data-center capacity.
Micron’s outlook therefore provides investors with another measure of whether enormous AI capital expenditures are translating into actual semiconductor demand.
For markets, the next question is whether Micron can expand production quickly enough to capture that demand without eventually creating excessive capacity.
