Micron Technology and Sandisk shares shook off recent selling pressure to post strong gains Thursday, leading a broader rally across memory and AI-related chip stocks after a rough stretch that had seen both names pull back sharply from their 52-week highs.
How the Stocks Performed
Micron Technology (MU) stock climbed roughly 4.4%–4.5% on Thursday, briefly touching near $1,035 intraday, while Sandisk (SNDK) did even better, jumping about 7.6%. The rally extended across the memory and semiconductor complex more broadly, with Western Digital, Marvell, Broadcom, Intel, and AMD all trading higher on the day. The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) climbed 2.5%, and the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose over 3%, marking its second straight positive session.
The bounce comes after a genuinely rough week for the memory trade. Both stocks had suffered sharp pullbacks in prior sessions—Micron had retreated as much as 22% from its June 25 high, while Sandisk had fallen roughly 30% from its own 52-week peak reached on June 22—as investors worried that surging memory prices could dent demand for consumer electronics like smartphones, PCs, and gaming consoles. Despite the volatility, both stocks remain among the market's best performers in 2026: Micron has nearly tripled year-to-date, while Sandisk has posted a staggering 489% gain.
What's Driving the Rebound
Two catalysts converged to fuel Thursday's rally. First, Micron announced it will invest up to $3 billion to "strengthen the U.S. semiconductor supply-chain ecosystem," including support for GlobalWafers' silicon wafer manufacturing operations in Texas through a new 10-year supply agreement that locks in long-term access to raw silicon wafer capacity. Micron separately unveiled an even larger commitment, saying it now plans to invest more than $250 billion in the U.S. through 2035 to meet AI-driven memory demand—an upward revision from its previous $200 billion pledge.
Second, reports that South Korea's SK Hynix was oversubscribed in its upcoming U.S. IPO signaled that institutional investors remain firmly bullish on the broader AI memory trade. SK Hynix is set to make its Nasdaq debut on Friday under the ticker SKHY, offering 177.9 million American depositary shares. The strong demand for that offering appears to have reinforced confidence in memory-sector fundamentals more broadly.
The Bigger Picture: A Genuine Supply Crunch
Underpinning the rally is a structural story that's been building for months: a critical shortage of high-bandwidth memory (HBM), the specialized chips used in AI data centers, which Wall Street expects to persist through 2027. That shortage has fueled outsized gains not just for Micron but for rivals Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix as well. Micron's own fiscal Q3 2026 results underscored the strength of the trade: revenue of $41.46 billion, up 346% year-over-year, with non-GAAP EPS of $25.11 beating consensus estimates of $20.28. The company's Q4 guidance calls for revenue of $50 billion and non-GAAP EPS of $31 at the midpoint. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra has defended the company's recent memory price increases as a natural response to constrained supply, and Micron became one of the latest U.S. companies to cross a $1 trillion market capitalization in late May amid surging HBM demand.
Not Everyone Is Convinced the Rally Has Legs
Not all analysts are fully on board with the sector's recent volatility settling down. Some strategists, including Morningstar's director of research Lorraine Tan, have warned that a meaningful slice of AI-related names—memory stocks among the most exposed—could still give back 20% to 30% of their gains before becoming attractively valued again, citing looming supply additions from Samsung and SK Hynix that could eventually soften memory pricing as AI capital expenditure growth is expected to taper. Bank of America, on the other hand, has taken the opposite view, raising its Sandisk price target to $2,500 with a Buy rating, arguing that the NAND supply-and-demand imbalance and firm pricing should hold through 2027.
What It Means Going Forward
Thursday's rebound suggests that, for now, bullish fundamentals and fresh U.S. investment commitments are winning out over near-term valuation concerns and last week's sharp pullback. With SK Hynix's Nasdaq debut set for Friday and Micron's next earnings report on the horizon, investors will get more signals soon about whether the memory sector's extraordinary 2026 run still has room to run—or whether the recent volatility is a preview of a more sustained cooldown ahead.