Micron Reaches Netlist Patent Settlement as Taiwan Workers Back Strike Vote

AMD CEO Lisa Su said the company continues to explore partnership opportunities with Samsung Electronics in memory chips and contract manufacturing, according to media reports. Su said she met with executives at SK Hynix and planned to meet Samsung executives, and that AMD was working with customers to use memory more efficiently as it seeks to meet growing computing demand. She also urged memory suppliers to increase production as quickly as possible. "I think we very much rely on the Korean supply chain," Su said, adding that Samsung and SK Hynix are "key for us to accomplish our broad ambition in data centres." Su said demand for data centers remains strong, with AMD seeing demand across its product portfolio.

DA Davidson lifted its price target on Micron to $3000 from $2100, citing the memory-chip maker's growth prospects as AI drives demand for memory. The $3000 target implies about 195% upside from Micron's shares, which were trading at $1018 before the bell on Wednesday. Analyst Gil Luria said Micron is on a growth trajectory for the next 3-5 years that the market has not yet acknowledged, and the brokerage expects memory demand to exceed supply in 2027 and 2028. DA Davidson values Micron at about 19 times its fiscal 2027 earnings estimate and reiterated its Buy rating, noting that longer-term supply agreements with customers should make the business more predictable and that demand is coming from the largest companies, including Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, and Apple. The firm also said de-specing, or chipmakers' use of less memory per AI processor, should not necessarily weaken Micron's outlook, since using less memory could reduce AI system performance and eventually push customers to buy more. Micron shares have risen 266% this year.

ASML Holding N.V. raised its 2026 revenue outlook to EUR 43 billion to EUR 45 billion as customers increase capacity for advanced logic and memory. The company generated EUR 9.3 billion of revenue in the second quarter, up 21.3% year-over-year, while net income reached EUR 2.9 billion. Management expects EUV system sales to grow more than 45% this year, while memory-related system sales are expected to increase more than 75%. Installed-base revenue reached EUR 2.8 billion in the second quarter, nearly EUR 300 million above guidance, and the company expects that business to grow more than 30% this year. ASML said customers are already planning capacity for 1.4-nanometer chips, while advanced logic and DRAM are both seeing increasing lithography intensity, and Intel is already using a High-NA EUV system on its 18A process to produce some Core Ultra Series 3 processors. Management expects China to account for around 20% of 2026 sales, while restrictions on advanced semiconductor equipment can limit what ASML is allowed to sell into the country, and the stock trades at about 28.9x forward earnings.

Bank of America estimates that the total addressable market of the global memory industry, or TAM, will rise to 2 trillion US dollars in 2030, up from its previous estimate of 1.8 trillion dollars, viewing the industry as entering a long-term growth cycle driven by demand for artificial intelligence memory and high average selling prices. Global DRAM and NAND sales combined previously peaked at about 170 billion US dollars in 2018 amid the cloud boom, before a recovery in 2025 generated sales of roughly 210 billion US dollars, even as the NAND market weakened. Meanwhile, the annual run rate of the memory market in the third quarter of 2026 has already exceeded 1 trillion US dollars, with revenue in that quarter at about 278 billion dollars, which annualizes to roughly 1.1 trillion dollars. Bank of America also expects DRAM and NAND sales to grow at a compound annual rate, or CAGR, of about 21% over the four years starting in 2027, with sales rising from roughly 900 billion US dollars in 2026 to 1.4 trillion dollars in 2027 and continuing to grow through 2030, reflecting a long-term supercycle. Under assumptions of 2 trillion dollars in sales, a 50% operating margin, a 25% tax rate and a price-to-earnings ratio of 13 times, Bank of America estimates that the fair market value of the memory industry could reach 10 trillion US dollars. For Thai investors, this theme relates to depositary receipts, or DRs, referencing Micron Technology shares that trade on the Thai stock market, such as MICRON01, MICRON19, MICRON03 and MICRON80, since Micron is a maker of memory products and data storage systems that stands to benefit from rising long-term demand for DRAM, NAND and AI memory.