Memory chips have become the most valuable commodity in the AI economy.
The Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index has leaped 60% in six weeks, and Micron—a memory chipmaker—surged 38% last week alone, its best week since 2008. Retail traders have caught on and piled into the rally at the highest level in a year that same week, per JPMorgan.
But Willy Shih is not so sure. The Harvard Business School professor, who has tracked semiconductor cycles since the 1980s, told Fortune the AI memory boom looks like every other memory cycle he has watched—just bigger.
“Anytime people show me these curves that just go to the sky with no end, that never continues forever,” he said. “This too will pass.”
What memory is, and why it’s suddenly worth so much
