AIBRIEF
AI and data center buyers drained global memory supply, lifting Micron's quarterly DRAM revenue 343% and keeping PC RAM prices elevated into 2027.
The memory chips that go into every PC, laptop, and phone are in a global shortage. That shortage just handed Micron a fiscal fourth-quarter haul of $54.2 billion, with DRAM revenue up 343% from a year ago and 27% sequentially.
DRAM, the workhorse memory inside laptops, servers, and AI accelerators, made up 73% of Micron's quarterly revenue. Cloud Memory alone delivered $16.3 billion in the quarter, while the Core Data Center unit cleared $18.0 billion at a 90% gross margin, up from 41% a year earlier.
AI and data-center operators are buying memory faster than fabs can produce it, and prices for the chips that go into an 8GB or 16GB laptop have climbed with them. Micron's windfall and the buyer's squeeze sit on the same ledger.
Relief is not in view. Micron's prepared remarks say CEO Sanjay Mehrotra expects 2027 to keep getting better, and Gizmodo reports Wedbush analyst Hendi Susanto's read that there is "no negative data point" yet pointing to a price turn. The same shortage that printed Micron's quarter is the one shoppers will feel when they price a memory upgrade this fall.