Micron’s Record Year Strengthens the Bull Case, but Memory Cycles Still Rule

Micron Technology ended fiscal 2026 with record revenue and profit as artificial-intelligence demand tightened the market for advanced memory. A reported stock sale by investment managers handling accounts associated with President Donald Trump attracted attention, but it offers little evidence about where the memory cycle will peak.

Micron reported full-year revenue of $133.2 billion, up 256%, and diluted earnings per share of $75.52, up 811%. Fourth-quarter revenue reached $54.229 billion. The company’s prepared remarks put its fiscal-year gross margin at 81.1%, correcting the 80.7% figure in the original article.

Those results reflect exceptional pricing and product mix, especially high-bandwidth memory used alongside AI accelerators. They also illustrate why extrapolation is dangerous. Memory is a capital-intensive commodity market in which shortages can lift prices and margins quickly, then encourage supply that eventually reverses the cycle.

The source said third-party managers sold between $251,000 and $515,000 of Micron shares from Trump-linked accounts in August. The trades were made by outside investment managers, not presented as a personal call by Trump. Their size was also immaterial relative to Micron’s market capitalization, so they should not be read as a informed forecast of semiconductor demand.

The stronger question is whether supply discipline persists as Micron and rivals expand capacity. High-bandwidth memory requires more wafer area than conventional memory, which can constrain supply, but customers can slow orders if data-center spending weakens or if inventories rise.

Micron’s earnings momentum is real and unusually strong. So is the risk that current margins represent a favorable point in a volatile cycle. Investors should track contract pricing, inventory days, capital spending and high-bandwidth-memory capacity commitments. Those indicators will say more about the next year than a small portfolio sale.