Micron (MU) opened at a record intraday high Tuesday after UBS more than tripled its price target on the memory chipmaker to a Street high of $1,625, arguing that the AI boom has structurally changed the market for memory.
The new target is up from $535 and implies roughly 115% upside from Micron’s Friday close of $751. UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri wrote that the market should start putting a more “normal” multiple on Micron as investors get more evidence of the changes AI has driven across the memory complex.
The stock briefly eclipsed the $886.74 level that would value Micron at $1 trillion, temporarily making it the 11th-largest US public company by market value, behind Eli Lilly (LLY) and ahead of Walmart (WMT).
UBS is not just raising numbers. It’s also arguing that AI has changed the way investors should value the company.
Micron has historically traded like a cyclical memory stock, with investors worried about boom-and-bust pricing in DRAM and NAND. UBS is arguing that AI demand is changing that setup by giving Micron more visibility into demand and a smoother earnings path.
The stock surged over 10% in early trading, notching its 30th intraday all-time high of the year. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index (^SOX) also hit an intraday record after the opening bell.
The target’s size also changes the frame around the stock.
A $1,625 price would imply a market cap of roughly $1.8 trillion, according to Bloomberg, which would make Micron the seventh-biggest US company — behind Nvidia (NVDA), Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Amazon (AMZN), and Broadcom (AVGO) — and ahead of Tesla (TSLA), Meta (META), and Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B).
Micron’s move is being echoed in the broader chip trade.
Marvell Technology (MRVL), ON Semiconductor (ON), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Lam Research (LRCX), and Qualcomm (QCOM) were among the chip names gaining ground early. Wolfspeed (WOLF) jumped about 10%.
Marvell also entered the week with 10 straight weekly gains, while both Micron and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index have climbed in seven of the past eight weeks.
Micron bulls will want to hold the $800 price level or risk a false break to the upside. The biggest near-term support is around the $665 level.
Jared Blikre is the global markets and data editor for Yahoo Finance. Follow him on X at @SPYJared or email him at jaredblikre@yahooinc.com.
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