Why Micron is moving beyond its commodity reputation

Published July 3, 2026 6:00am ET



Memory chips store the data and instructions that power Nvidia’s accelerated computing platforms, as well as the world’s computers and smartphones. These chips are, put simply, the filing cabinets of the digital economy.

Since the late 1980s, the memory semiconductor market has been characterized by boom-and-bust profit cycles. Periods of strong profitability have routinely been followed by collapses in margins and earnings. Investors thus concluded that memory chips were simply another commodity product. But beginning in 2024, with the arrival of the Artificial Intelligence Revolution, the financial characteristics of the memory chip market began to change.

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