New York, Feb 23, 2026, 10:03 EST — Regular session
- Micron shares clawed back to a 0.5% gain after dropping almost 3% earlier, with chip stocks swinging on fresh tariff headlines.
- Traders keep a close eye on the latest U.S. tariff plan, weighing its potential impact on global tech supply chains.
- Nvidia reports on Feb. 25, giving the next critical look at both AI server demand and memory pricing.
Micron Technology moved around on Monday, but by late morning, shares picked up 0.5% to $430.45. Earlier in the session, the stock dropped as far as $415.58, with trading volume near 5.8 million shares.
Investors are adjusting rapidly to new trade risk, and that’s hitting hardware stocks with a jittery tape. Semis usually feel it first—chip, tooling, and packaging supply lines can zigzag across borders multiple times.
Micron faces a key test: will AI keep driving memory demand if the policy backdrop gets choppy? With Nvidia’s earnings just days away, traders are shifting bets, watching for any signals on data-center spending—a trend feeding appetite for high-bandwidth memory, or HBM, the speedy chips paired with AI processors.
President Donald Trump rolled out a fresh 15% tariff following a Supreme Court decision that invalidated his wider tariff measures, a move that left equities jittery. “The tariff landscape is now more uncertain than before,” said Rodrigo Catril, senior FX strategist at National Australia Bank. 1
Chip stocks went their separate ways: Nvidia climbed roughly 1.8%, while AMD slipped about 0.9%. The gap echoes a pattern that’s emerged lately, with investors shuffling between likely AI winners and those trailing behind.
Micron’s latest numbers are up next. The company is projecting fiscal Q2 revenue in the ballpark of $18.7 billion, give or take $400 million, and expects adjusted earnings to land around $8.42 a share, with a 20-cent swing either way. 2
Back in December, Micron posted a solid first-quarter beat, guiding profit well ahead of what analysts had penciled in. The company also bumped up its fiscal 2026 capex target to $20 billion, stepping up AI-related investments. 3
Supply, not demand, is where bulls are focusing. Analysts at Morningstar and J.P. Morgan point out that tightness could stick around through 2027, with Micron managing data-center contracts alongside its broader customer base. 4
Micron’s spending spree continues. Back in January, the company said it would put $24 billion into a new Singapore plant focused on NAND flash—the kind of storage memory found in solid-state drives. Wafer output is slated for the second half of 2028. There’s also a $7 billion advanced packaging facility planned for HBM, set to kick off in 2027. TrendForce analyst Bryan Ao points to a possible 55% to 60% bump in enterprise solid-state drive contract prices. “Demand for high-performance storage gear has been growing much faster than expected,” Ao noted. 5
Still, Micron’s business remains cyclical, and its shares reflect that track record. A sudden surge in industry supply or any halt in cloud spending can hit prices fast. Tariffs, too, threaten to dampen electronics demand and squeeze corporate IT budgets.
Now, attention shifts to specifics around tariff coverage and possible carve-outs, with some on the Street bracing for another supply chain pivot. Nvidia’s set to deliver its numbers Wednesday, Feb. 25, after the bell at 5 p.m. ET — a release that tends to send shockwaves across AI hardware players, memory firms included. 6
