TLDR
- Micron rose 6.1%, SanDisk jumped 11.9%, and SK Hynix gained 8.1% on Friday in a broad memory sector rebound
- Strong AI data centre demand and tight supply of HBM and NAND are keeping memory prices firm
- Micron has reportedly sold out its most advanced memory lines through the end of 2026
- UBS raised its HBM average selling price growth forecast to 79% year on year, up from 67%
- Lynx Equity issued bullish price targets of $1,325 for Micron and $2,450 for SanDisk, citing a multi-year memory shortage
Memory stocks staged a sharp comeback on Friday, with Micron, SanDisk, and SK Hynix all posting large gains after weeks of declines.
Micron finished up 6.1%, SanDisk surged 11.9%, and SK Hynix gained 8.1%. Western Digital also climbed around 6%. The Roundhill Memory ETF closed 6.6% higher, showing the buying was broad across the sector.
The rally came as investors rotated back into memory and data storage names on the back of strong AI hardware demand and tight supply conditions.
AI Spending Is Keeping Memory Demand High
High-bandwidth memory and NAND storage remain in short supply. AI data centre buildouts are continuing at a fast pace, and that is keeping pressure on inventory.
The entire memory theme has spent the last 3 months coiling for this upcoming break.$MU, $SNDK, $DRAM, & $WDC are all setup extremely bullish.
This upcoming move is going to be one that many will go back & say.
“I wish I bought more”
Memory stocks are about to do it again… pic.twitter.com/UPFw1JsdLO
— Mike Investing (@MrMikeInvesting) September 4, 2026
Micron has reportedly sold out its most advanced memory lines through the end of 2026. That gives top suppliers strong pricing power going into the rest of the year.
Dell’s $95 billion AI server backlog was cited as direct evidence that major tech companies are buying every memory wafer producers can ship.
Global DRAM revenue jumped 57% quarter on quarter in Q2, while NAND revenue surged 70%, according to Barron’s. Micron grew its DRAM market share to 24% and its NAND share to 15%.
Mizuho has called memory a “key bottleneck” across the semiconductor supply chain and kept an Outperform rating on Micron.
Nvidia disclosed $279 billion of supply and capacity commitments, primarily tied to memory and manufacturing, underlining how critical component availability remains for AI infrastructure.
Analysts Raise Targets and Estimates
UBS analyst Timothy Arcuri argued that concerns about AI chips needing less memory per unit may be too simplistic. If Nvidia ships more accelerators, total HBM consumption can still rise even if each chip carries less.
UBS raised its HBM average selling price growth forecast to 79% year on year from 67%, and also pointed to stronger NAND conditions as server and storage demand improves.
Lynx Equity issued upbeat notes calling for a multi-year memory shortage and assigned price targets of $1,325 for Micron and $2,450 for SanDisk.
Bernstein kept an Outperform rating on SanDisk with a $3,000 price target, raised from $1,700 in late June. The firm raised its fiscal 2027 earnings estimates on stronger NAND average selling prices.
Bernstein highlighted SanDisk’s new long-term supply agreements, which include stronger pricing protections and upfront customer commitments.
One risk the market is watching is China. YMTC’s global NAND share reached 14% in Q2, up from 9% a year earlier, while SanDisk’s share slipped to 11% from 13%.
A hotter-than-expected U.S. jobs report initially raised interest rate concerns on Friday. However, investors moved past it quickly and bought beaten-down growth stocks at lower valuations.
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