Micron (MU) Stock Slides 2% as OpenAI Training Halt Rattles Chip Sector

Key Takeaways

• Micron’s stock price declined approximately 2% during Monday’s premarket session, settling around the $1,056 mark.
• The selloff mirrored a wider semiconductor industry retreat triggered by increasing Treasury yields and OpenAI’s unexpected decision to halt training of new AI models.
• The memory chipmaker is scheduled to release its fiscal fourth-quarter financial results on Wednesday, with analysts projecting revenue to surge nearly 400% to $51.14 billion.
• Wall Street firms including Baird, Wells Fargo, and Stifel maintain optimistic outlooks, pointing to constrained DRAM and HBM availability through 2027.
• Over the trailing twelve months, Micron’s shares have soared approximately 590%, per InvestingPro analytics.

Shares of Micron Technology experienced downward pressure Monday morning, declining roughly 2% to hover near the $1,056 level. The weakness reflected a broader retreat across semiconductor stocks, driven by climbing bond yields.

Micron Technology, Inc., MU

Adding fuel to the selloff was a surprising announcement from OpenAI over the weekend. The artificial intelligence powerhouse behind ChatGPT revealed it would temporarily suspend training activities for its next-generation AI models due to safety considerations, unsettling investors already anxious about potential deceleration in AI infrastructure spending.

The memory chip manufacturer has delivered extraordinary returns for investors recently. With shares multiplying more than six times over the past year, any indication of cooling AI momentum tends to prompt rapid selling by traders looking to lock in profits.

Earnings on the Horizon

Micron is set to unveil its fiscal fourth-quarter performance on Wednesday. Consensus estimates call for revenue to expand nearly fivefold year-over-year to $51.14 billion.

Per-share earnings are anticipated to multiply more than ten times compared to the same period last year. If realized, this would represent one of the company’s most impressive quarterly performances in its history.

Notwithstanding the remarkable recent appreciation, Micron currently trades at a forward price-to-earnings multiple of merely 6.7 times, based on FactSet data. This valuation doesn’t yet account for potential share repurchases, which could commence as early as December.

Daniel Morgan, who serves as senior portfolio manager at Synovus Trust, believes the memory semiconductor market has additional upside ahead. He emphasized that DRAM and NAND availability should remain constrained through fiscal 2027, with meaningful supply expansion not anticipated until fiscal 2028.

Morgan highlighted that Micron is currently fulfilling less than half of the volume requested by its data center clients. This supply-demand imbalance suggests customer appetite significantly exceeds the company’s current manufacturing capacity.

Wall Street Perspectives

Baird increased its price objective on Micron to $1,520 from $1,280, while maintaining an Underperform rating. The firm highlighted accelerating demand for agentic AI applications, decelerating industry-wide DRAM bit expansion in 2027, and improved profitability expectations for high-bandwidth memory in the coming year.

Baird projects AI CPU shipment growth of approximately 40% during 2027. The investment bank also elevated its DRAM pricing forecasts for the latter half of 2026.

Industry-wide DRAM bit expansion is now anticipated to exceed 30% in 2026 before moderating to 20% in 2027, incorporating HBM volumes. High-bandwidth memory specifically is forecast to expand roughly 60% year-over-year, with supply constraints likely persisting into 2027.

Server shipment growth is also expected to accelerate, advancing from 18-19% this year to 20-22% in the following year. Meanwhile, Chinese competitor CXMT’s bit expansion of 45% this year is projected to decelerate significantly in 2027.

Additional financial institutions are maintaining bullish positions. JPMorgan anticipates Micron’s revenue, gross margin, and earnings per share will surpass consensus projections of $51.4 billion, 86.2%, and $31.73 per share, respectively.

UBS reaffirmed a Buy recommendation, emphasizing an expanding divergence between DRAM supply availability and customer demand. The bank envisions server and storage SSD bit demand potentially exceeding 100% year-over-year expansion by 2027.

Wells Fargo maintained its Overweight stance while elevating its price objective to $1,400. The institution also increased its revenue and earnings projections for fiscal years 2027 and 2028.

Stifel reaffirmed its Buy recommendation as well, anticipating Micron’s results and forward guidance will exceed market expectations. The firm observed that supply limitations could moderate the magnitude of positive surprises relative to some investor expectations.