New York, February 19, 2026, 16:59 ET — After-hours
- Micron slipped roughly 1% in after-hours trading, with shares most recently changing hands at $417.35.
- Samsung is reportedly targeting about $700 for each HBM4 unit—a price tag as much as 30% higher than the HBM3E generation.
- Friday’s U.S. PCE inflation data is now the focus as investors hunt for the next clue on rates.
Micron Technology dropped 1% after hours Thursday, with the stock last quoted at $417.35, down $4.10 from its previous close at $421.45. Shares on the Nasdaq moved between $408.03 and $426.34 during the session. The stock has surged roughly 91% in the past year.
Memory pricing remains front and center, a volatile input to earnings forecasts now that AI hardware is shaking up supply chains. At Micron, it’s the high-end memory delivered to data centers—not PC or handset chips—that really moves the margin needle.
Stocks slipped in the U.S. on Thursday. The S&P 500 dropped 0.28%, while the Nasdaq lost 0.31%. AI-driven swings kept traders on edge ahead of new inflation numbers. “Not everyone’s going to win,” warned Keith Buchanan, senior portfolio manager at GLOBALT Investments, pointing to investors sizing up which companies might actually convert AI investments into real profits. 1
Samsung Electronics surged up to 5.4% in Seoul, hitting a fresh high after the Chosun Ilbo reported the company is in talks to price its upcoming HBM4 AI memory chips about 30% above the HBM3E line—roughly $700 apiece. “Pricing power,” said Saxo Markets’ Charu Chanana, pointing out the AI memory space hasn’t loosened up. Over at Bloomberg Intelligence, Masahiro Wakasugi calculated that sticker price could mean operating margins of 50% to 60% on HBM4 for Samsung. 2
High-bandwidth memory, or HBM, aims to boost data speeds while cutting power consumption. It’s showing up more often with GPUs and AI accelerators. The design stacks DRAM dies on top of one another, connecting them with through-silicon vias—a packaging method that’s more involved, and usually more expensive, than standard memory options. 3
Analysts remain optimistic about the cycle. Needham’s Quinn Bolton bumped up his Micron price target to $450 from $380, keeping a buy rating in place. Bolton pointed to a “continuing to tighten” memory market and noted pricing is going “meaningfully higher,” TipRanks reported. 4
The situation isn’t one-sided. Should competitors increase supply ahead of forecasts or if data-center budgets start to shrink, that pricing power can evaporate fast. This industry knows all about sudden boom-and-bust cycles.
Friday brings the U.S. personal income and outlays data, with the personal consumption expenditures price index—favored by the Federal Reserve on inflation—front and center. The Bureau of Economic Analysis has scheduled the next PCE report for Feb. 20. 5
