Micron Stock Sinks on AI Safety Fears but This Is the Next Catalyst -- Barrons.com

By Adam Clark

Micron Technology shares were slipping early Monday as fears of an artificial-intelligence slowdown loom again. Shareholders should concentrate on the memory-chip company's earnings prospects.

Micron shares were down 2.4% at $1,056 in premarket trading. The move was broadly in line with the wider chip sector, which was being weighed on by higher bond yields and a statement from ChatGPT-developer OpenAI over the weekend that it would pause training of its latest AI models amid safety concerns.

This double whammy of bad news is unwelcome. Micron is a volatile stock after gaining more than sixfold in the past 12 months. Anything that indicates a slowdown in AI spending, including higher borrowing costs or a halt to model development, can have shareholders eyeing the exits.

But Micron has overcome such concerns before and while AI data centers are still being built, ravenous demand for its memory products should continue.

The company will report fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on Wednesday, with revenue expected to rise nearly fivefold to $51.14 billion and earnings per share forecast to increase more than tenfold. The company trades at a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 6.7 times according to FactSet and that's before widely expected stock buybacks which could begin from this December.

Skeptics will argue that memory-chip companies always look cheap at the peak of their cyclical earnings. But there's little sign that the memory boom is peaking yet.

Memory supply (DRAM/NAND) should remain tight into FY2027 [Micron's 2027 fiscal year] with incremental real supply only coming into balance by FY2028," wrote Daniel Morgan, a senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust, in a research note. "Most relevant is the fact that the company is still fulfilling less than 50% of the volumes requested by its Data Center customers."

Barron's previously argued Micron could double in price, when it was trading around $1,100. One scary Monday morning doesn't change that logic.

Write to Adam Clark at adam.clark@barrons.com

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September 28, 2026 06:26 ET (10:26 GMT)