Micron Technology just reminded everyone why memory chips are the unglamorous backbone of the AI revolution. The company posted fiscal Q3 2026 results that didn’t just beat expectations, they obliterated them, and the ripple effects reached Tokyo and Seoul before most American traders had their morning coffee.
On June 25, the Nikkei index surged more than 2.5%, driven primarily by AI and semiconductor shares reacting to Micron’s after-hours earnings release the day before. Samsung and SK Hynix, South Korea’s two memory chip giants, rode the same wave of optimism.
The numbers behind the rally
Micron reported earnings per share of $25.11 for fiscal Q3, against analyst estimates of roughly $20.5. Revenue landed at $41.46 billion versus projected estimates of around $35.7 billion.
The engine behind these numbers is high-bandwidth memory, or HBM. HBM is the specialized, ultra-fast memory that AI data centers need to train and run large language models.
