US company Micron Technology Inc (NASDAQ: MU) is the latest to hit the US$1 trillion valuation benchmark after a bullish broker report on the company's shares sent them almost 20% higher in US trade.
Micron shares closed 19.3% higher at US$895.88 after UBS issued a research note on the company, tripling its price target from US$535 to US$1625 per share.
Micron shares had already more than doubled since the start of this year when they were changing hands for $US315.42.
The company is benefiting from the artificial intelligence boom, which is driving strong demand in the chip manufacturing sector, the most prominent of which is Nvidia Corp (NASDAQ: NVDA), now worth about US$5.22 trillion.
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Surging revenue growth
Micron on March 18 announced its second-quarter results, saying revenue grew to US$23.86 billion, up from US$13.64 billion in the prior quarter and US$8.05 billion in the same period last year.
Net income came in at US$13.79 billion, while operating cash flow was US$11.90 billion, up from US$8.41 billion in the prior quarter and US$3.94 billion in the same period last year.
Chief Executive Officer Sanjay Mehrotra said of the results:
Micron set new records across revenue, gross margin, EPS, and free cash flow in fiscal Q2, driven by a strong demand environment, tight industry supply, and our strong execution, and we expect significant records again in fiscal Q3. In the AI era, memory has become a strategic asset for our customers, and we are investing in our global manufacturing footprint to support their growing demand. Reflecting confidence in the sustained strength of our business, our board has approved a 30% increase in our quarterly dividend.
Third quarter to smash records again
The company is forecasting revenue of US$33.5 billion in the third quarter, which Mr Mehrotra said, "exceeds the full year revenue for every year in our company's history through fiscal 2024''.
He added:
The step-up in our results and outlook are the outcome of an increase in memory demand driven by AI, structural supply constraints and Micron's strong execution across the board. Our memory and storage solutions are at the heart of this AI revolution. Memory makes AI smarter and more capable, enabling longer context windows, deeper reasoning chains and multi-agent orchestration. As AI evolves, we expect compute architectures to become more memory-intensive. This is why we strongly believe that Micron is one of the biggest beneficiaries and enablers of AI. AI hasn't just increased demand for memory — it has fundamentally recast memory as a defining strategic asset in the AI era.
