Micron says memory shortages are here for the foreseeable future

Steven

Micron says memory shortages are here for the foreseeable future

Summary

Micron warns that demand for memory and storage driven by AI data-centre build-outs will outstrip industry supply for the foreseeable future. The company reported strong Q1 2026 results — $13.64bn revenue and $5.2bn net income — and forecasts further substantial growth next quarter. Memory manufacturers are shifting capacity to high-bandwidth memory (HBM) for AI, reducing commodity DRAM and SSD output and pushing prices up. Micron’s new fabs and improving HBM4 yields will add capacity in 2026–27, but the firm expects demand from AI training, inferencing, AI-generated video and more memory in consumer devices to keep pressure on supply and prices.

Key Points

  • Micron states aggregate industry supply will remain substantially short of demand because of AI data-centre build-outs.
  • Q1 2026 revenue rose 56% year-on-year to $13.64bn, with net income up to $5.2bn and EPS beating expectations.
  • Manufacturers are reallocating production to HBM (higher margins), reducing commodity memory output and driving price increases for servers and PCs.
  • New fabs coming online in 2026–27 and improving HBM4 yields will help, but are unlikely to eliminate the supply shortage in the near term.
  • Rising demand for SSDs (fuelled by AI video workloads and inferencing) and more memory in phones/PCs will sustain market tightness and elevated prices.

Why should I read this?

Quick and dirty: if you buy, sell or build servers, laptops or phones, this hits your wallet. Micron’s results show AI is skewing where memory makers put capacity, so expect higher prices and tighter availability for commodity memory and storage for the next couple of years. We read the numbers and the guidance so you don’t have to — important if you’re budgeting or planning procurement.

Context and Relevance

This is part of a broader industry shift: memory vendors favour high-margin HBM for AI accelerators, which tightens supply for mainstream DRAM and SSD markets. For IT teams and procurement, the immediate implications are higher hardware costs, potential price adjustments from server vendors, and longer lead times. For vendors and product strategists, it underlines why investment in HBM, SSD capacity and on-device memory optimisation is becoming central to competitive positioning.

Source

Source: https://go.theregister.com/2025/12/18/micron_q1_2026/