Riding on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) craze led by Sanjay Mehrotra Micron Technology Corporation MU outperforms Wall Street darling NVIDIA Corporation NVDA last year (+239.1% vs +38.8%). Can Micron repeat this feat, or will NVIDIA have the upper hand this year? Let’s take a look.
Micron’s high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips excel at processing large amounts of data while minimizing power consumption. Currently, these HBM chips are in short supply due to the surge in artificial intelligence infrastructure, which is fueling high demand and has contributed significantly to Micron’s recent strong performance.
According to investors.micron.com, Micron’s revenue in the first quarter of fiscal year 2026 was US$13.64 billion, a year-on-year increase of 56.8%. That beat analysts’ expectations of about $12.88 billion, bolstering confidence that demand for Micron’s products remains strong.
All of Micron Technology’s business units achieved revenue growth in the fiscal first quarter, including its core cloud storage business unit. This strong revenue performance helped Micron report non-GAAP net income of $5.48 billion, or $4.78 per share, above analysts’ forecasts of $3.94.
In addition, Micron expects stronger results in the second quarter of fiscal 2026, driven by demand for AI-driven HBM chips, with revenue of $1.83 to $19.1 billion and earnings per share (EPS) of $8.22 to $8.62. The company’s stable cash flow of $3.9 billion in the first fiscal quarter also provided Micron with funds to support growth plans.
Strong demand for its CUDA software platform and cutting-edge Blackwell chips drove NVIDIA’s recent quarterly results. According to data from Investor.nvidia.com, NVIDIA’s revenue in the third quarter of fiscal year 2026 was US$57 billion, a year-on-year increase of 62% and a quarter-on-quarter increase of 22%.
NVIDIA founder and CEO Jensen Huang said, “Blackwell sales have broken records and cloud GPUs have been sold out.” The company remains optimistic about future growth, forecasting revenue of approximately $65 billion in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 and profit margins of plus or minus 2%.
In addition, with the Trump administration’s approval of NVIDIA’s sales of H200 AI chips to specific customers in China, the company expects profitability to continue to grow. Led by Jensen Huang, NVIDIA is well positioned for growth in 2026, benefiting from competitive advantages in the AI ​​hardware market and a likely increase in global data center capital spending.
There is no doubt that Micron will thrive in 2026, driven by increased demand for HBM chips. Likewise, NVIDIA will expand, driven by surging demand for Blackwell chips, record cloud GPU sales and increased investment in data centers around the world.
