A "blockbuster" earnings report from Micron sent Wall Street into a frenzy

On June 24, 2026, after the U.S. stock market closed, Micron Technology (MU) delivered a historic earnings report that left all skeptics speechless.

Third-quarter revenue reached $41.46B, surging 345.72% year-over-year and 73.75% quarter-over-quarter; net profit was $28.24B, skyrocketing 1,398.30% year-over-year; gross margin hit 84.9%, even surpassing AI chip giant Nvidia; adjusted earnings per share were $25.11; free cash flow was $18.3 billion. All four business lines exploded, with three core metrics setting single-quarter historical records.

What excited the market even more was the guidance for the next quarter: Micron expects Q4 revenue of approximately $50 billion, far exceeding the analyst consensus of $43.58 billion; EPS guidance of $30.73, also above Wall Street expectations of $25.31.

After the earnings release, Micron's stock surged over 16% in after-hours trading, eventually closing up about 15.78% at $1,213.96. Following this, U.S. chip stocks collectively rose in after-hours trading—Western Digital jumped over 11%, SanDisk over 10%, Qualcomm over 10%, Seagate Technology over 8%, and ARM over 5%. Nasdaq futures rose more than 500 points. Wall Street investment banks rushed to raise their price targets overnight. JPMorgan directly increased its target from $550 to $1,540; BofA Securities raised it to $1,550; DA Davidson and Susquehanna both set a Wall Street-high target of $2,000. Micron's total return over the past year has reached 724%.

This frenzy was not limited to U.S. stocks. On June 25, South Korea's KOSPI index surged 5.4% to 8,928.61 points, and KOSPI 200 futures rose 5%, triggering a circuit breaker; SK Hynix's stock price soared 13.06% in a single day; six major A-share storage leaders—GigaDevice, Longsys, Dosilicon, Biwin Storage, Shannon Semiconductor, and Puya Semiconductor—all hit record highs. Samsung Electronics rose 5.58%, and SK Hynix rose 11.05%.

Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra clearly stated that due to AI-driven demand and structural supply constraints, HBM supply tightness will persist beyond 2027. The company's 2026 HBM capacity is already essentially sold out. Goldman Sachs believes that a clearly looser supply-demand balance will not occur until at least 2028. Micron has expanded its strategic customer agreements from one five-year contract in the previous quarter to 16 signed agreements—its business model is transitioning from a cyclical commodity producer to a multi-year contract supplier.

Just as this AI storage feast is unfolding, a globally renowned value investor known as the "Indian Buffett" is deeply regretting a decision he made two years ago.

Mohnish Pabrai, born in 1964 in India, was originally an engineer. He founded the Pabrai Investment Fund in 1999. In 2007, he won the opportunity to have lunch with Buffett for $650k.

On June 22, Pabrai reviewed his most regrettable trades during his investment career on a Korean talk show.

As early as 2017, he began building a position in Micron, holding it for six years. At one point, the position accounted for 77% of his portfolio. His investment logic at the time was clear: after a brutal shakeout in the global memory market, an oligopoly of three players—Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron—had formed. He even flew to Seoul to meet with SK Hynix management, visited Samsung executives, and had in-depth discussions with Micron's Indian-origin CEO. He also specifically consulted Buffett and Munger—who responded that most oligopolies generate significant profits.

But in September 2023, Samsung announced capacity expansion. Based on that, Pabrai concluded that the supply-side logic of the storage industry had been undermined, and he immediately liquidated his Micron position, roughly doubling his money.

However, at that very time, ChatGPT had already emerged, and AI large model-driven HBM demand was experiencing explosive growth.

Within two years after the liquidation, Micron's stock price had risen more than 15 times. It is estimated that he missed out on approximately $2 billion in gains. He made the same mistake with SK Hynix.

"It's very regrettable. I violated my principles and sold a company that I should have held forever," Pabrai admitted in the interview.

But his judgment on the storage industry remains clear—

"The memory industry once had as many as 20 companies fighting and undercutting each other, all eventually losing money and exiting, leaving only three," Pabrai explained. "New entrants can hardly come in—patent barriers, engineer talent pool, process complexity. It would take 10, 15, or even 20 years to enter."

For investors still holding Korean semiconductor stocks, his advice is straightforward:

"If you're already holding, don't sell. The party has just begun." #0成本拿2股SK海力士