micron

According to Gate data, the "Seven Sisters" sector in the U.S. stock market is generally down before the market opens, with mixed performance in the storage sector.NVIDIA is down 0.53%, Apple is down 0.27%, Microsoft is down 0.59%, Google is up 0.16%, Amazon is down 0.10%, Meta is down 0.36%, and Tesla is down 0.21%.Micron is up 0.55%, SanDisk is up 0.65%, SK Hynix is up 1.67%, Western Digital is down 0.58%, and Seagate Technology is down 0.34%.

Micron Technology, a memory manufacturer, recently signed a labor agreement with the Taichung Labor Union. Reports cite the Ministry of Economic Affairs explaining that over 80% of personnel will see salary adjustments of nearly 2.7 times, with production line staff's annual salary increasing from 630,000 to over 2 million.The Ministry of Economic Affairs also stated that the annual salary for entry-level engineers will rise from 1.45 million to 4 million, while mid-to-senior level engineers will see their salaries increase from over 2 million to 6 million. The union successfully negotiated an increase in the employer's contribution rate for labor retirement to 10%, which is above the industry standard; the day shift allowance for frontline production line staff has been adjusted from 1,500 to 4,500, tripling the original amount.

Dongfang Gangwan Fund Chairman Dan Bin is making a "major adjustment" in the technology sector. According to statistics from Private Equity Ranking Network, as of the end of the third quarter of 2026, Dongfang Gangwan's overseas fund held a total of 13 U.S. stock targets, with a total market value of approximately $1.469 billion.From the perspective of industry distribution, AI remains a key focus for Dongfang Gangwan. As of the end of the third quarter, Google was the largest holding in Dongfang Gangwan's overseas fund. However, in terms of buying and selling actions, Dan Bin's preference for sub-sectors within the AI industry has changed significantly compared to the second quarter.According to statistics, in the third quarter of this year, Dongfang Gangwan's overseas fund reduced its holdings in targets such as Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), Broadcom, and Lumentum, which were newly purchased in the second quarter, while increasing its positions in storage giant Micron Technology, SanDisk, as well as Nvidia, Google-C, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company.

Micron Technology plans to invest up to 3 billion dollars to strengthen the semiconductor supply chain in the United States.

According to a report by Reuters, Micron's Taoyuan union in Taiwan announced on October 20 that it plans to initiate a strike this Thursday to protest the dispute over employee bonuses and profit-sharing plans, and to support the Taichung union, which is currently in mediation negotiations with the company.Currently, the mediation between the Taoyuan union and Micron broke down in September, and the former received authorization from its members to strike in early October. The Taichung union represents Micron's largest operational department in Taiwan and is still negotiating with the company, having not yet voted on whether to strike. Micron has approximately 15,000 employees in Taiwan, primarily producing key components for AI servers, DRAM, and high-bandwidth memory (HBM). The Taoyuan union did not specify the duration of the strike, and Taiwan's regional leader Lai Ching-te called on both sides to negotiate sincerely last week.

Micron Technology Vice President Li Zhe stated at the Korea Semiconductor Exhibition SEDEX 2026 held at COEX in Seoul that the company is developing Edge Inference Memory (EIM) for physical AI. The industry expects this product to enter mass production in the second half of 2028. Micron is researching the use of EIM in LPDDR6 to meet the demand for low-power DRAM in applications such as autonomous driving and humanoid robots, and is in discussions with major customers regarding related products.According to a report by the Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, EIM is positioned between AI chips and memory, utilizing a method of stacking LPDDR on logic chips to process inference data at high speed, although the computing architecture has not been fully disclosed. Li Zhe mentioned that current robotic AI models have about 1 billion to 2 billion parameters, with low bandwidth requirements; however, as more advanced visual language models emerge, LPDDR alone will not suffice, and HBM will eventually be used for humanoid robots. Micron anticipates that future high-performance humanoid robots will require approximately 200 GB of DRAM and 4 TB of storage, while current service robots require about 12 GB of DRAM and 256 GB of storage.Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra stated that the storage capacity of a single humanoid robot is about 10 times that of an ordinary L2+ passenger vehicle. The storage industry may enter a period of sustained demand growth for several decades around 2030, driven by the need to synchronize data from hundreds of sensors and run large models locally for millisecond-level control. Counterpoint Research predicts that global DRAM demand for humanoid robots will increase from approximately 8,300 Tbit this year to about 172,000 Tbit by 2030.

According to Gate market data, the storage sector in the U.S. stock market saw a general rise before the market opened, with Micron Technology up 2.4%, SanDisk up 3.64%, SK Hynix up 3.6%, and Western Digital and Seagate Technology both up over 2%.

According to Gate market data, Micron Technology (MU.O) turned positive during the session after previously falling more than 6%.

On Tuesday, the global semiconductor sector faced a massive sell-off, with the decline intensifying. The trigger was Broadcom CEO Hock Tan stating that AI investments have a "casino-like" nature. He mentioned in Singapore on Monday that many investors do not even know what they are investing in and that investors have set extremely high expectations, only to find that it is just like being in a casino.The world's two largest memory chip manufacturers, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, saw their stock prices plunge by 8.8% and 9.2% at one point during the morning session, dragging down South Korea's main stock index by 7%. The two companies account for about half of the weight in the Korea Composite Stock Price Index, and their stock prices have cumulatively dropped by about 15% over the past five days. The Taiwan Weighted Stock Index, dominated by chip stocks, fell by 2.5%, with TSMC down 2%; Micron Technology dropped nearly 4% overnight, and the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Index fell by 2.7%.

According to Gate market data, the decline in the U.S. stock market's storage and optical communication sectors has narrowed.In the storage sector, Micron Technology (MU) fell by 2.88%, Western Digital (WDC) fell by 2.11%, SanDisk (SNDK) fell by 5.68%, Seagate Technology (STX) fell by 3.62%, and SK Hynix (SKHY) fell by 3.67%.In the optical communication concept stocks, Applied Optoelectronics (AAOI) fell by 6.47%, Coherent (COHR) fell by 7.14%, Credo (CRDO) fell by 5.69%, Lumentum (LITE) fell by 1.57%, and Nokia (NOK) fell by 2.99%.

According to a report by Reuters, reprinted by Nikkei Asia, the union representing employees at Micron Technology's Taoyuan plant in Taiwan announced on Wednesday that it has obtained authorization for a strike, with the focus of the dispute being the company's bonus plan. The union stated that 1,994 members voted in favor of the strike, accounting for 99% of the voters, while details such as the timing of the strike are still under discussion. Micron has approximately 15,000 employees in Taiwan, with independent unions in Taoyuan and Taichung, and the two unions together represent over 80% of Micron's employees in Taiwan. Micron Taiwan is the company's largest manufacturing base.Taiwan is a key production site for Micron's DRAM and high-bandwidth memory, with related chips being important components for AI servers. Mediation with the Taoyuan union did not reach an agreement in September, and the Taichung union is still in negotiations. In September, Micron announced that it would distribute bonuses for the fiscal year 2026 to over 60,000 employees worldwide, stating that the company had experienced an "extraordinary year," with Taiwanese employees receiving a cash bonus of 1 million New Taiwan Dollars, approximately 31,400 US dollars. The Taoyuan union stated that the plan did not address the request for a permanent profit-sharing mechanism and criticized Micron for announcing the bonuses without first reaching an agreement with the union during the mediation period.

Micron Technology Chairman and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra stated that, in addition to data centers, physical AI will be the next huge incremental market. Autonomous vehicles are the first major deployment of physical AI, with memory capacities for Level 4 and above autonomous vehicles typically exceeding 200GB and storage capacities reaching several TB. Micron believes that physical AI will become an important driver of storage demand.

Micron Technology (MU.O) Chief Financial Officer Mark Murphy stated during the earnings call that revenue for the first quarter of fiscal year 2027 will reach $61.5 billion, with earnings per share of $38.15, continuing to rise quarter-over-quarter, and clearly pointed out that this quarter will be the low point for gross margin for the entire fiscal year 2027, after which gross margins are expected to gradually recover in subsequent quarters.Micron has currently signed 26 long-term agreements, locking in approximately $150 billion in long-term orders. The supply and demand in the storage market for 2027 and 2028 will be tighter than in 2026, and "there is no end in sight for the restoration of supply and demand balance."Micron Technology (MU.O) expects capital expenditures for the first half of fiscal year 2027 to be around $25 billion, with higher spending in the second half, and most of the incremental spending will be for new wafer fabrication plants (construction expenditures) rather than purely for equipment procurement. Micron Technology CFO Mark Murphy explained that this is entirely because long-term contracts provide sufficient demand visibility, and new greenfield factories require a very long lead time.Additionally, Micron Technology Chief Financial Officer Mark Murphy also mentioned during the earnings call that in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026, Micron Technology generated an impressive $44 billion in operating cash flow and $33.2 billion in free cash flow.As time goes on, we expect to return 100% of excess cash to shareholders. We plan to begin increasing capital returns starting December 9, 2026 (the second anniversary of our signing of the final agreement for the CHIPS Act), primarily through stock buybacks.

Micron Technology expects its adjusted revenue for Q1 of the next fiscal year to be between 60 billion and 63 billion dollars, higher than the market expectation of 56.77 billion dollars.

Micron Technology will announce its earnings report after the US stock market closes.

Next week's macro data focus will be on Friday's U.S. non-farm payroll report, including non-farm employment population, unemployment rate, and average hourly wage, which are directly related to the Federal Reserve's interest rate path and are important employment data ahead of the October monetary policy meeting. According to Beijing time, on Wednesday at 20:15, the U.S. September ADP employment figures will be released, and at 20:30, the U.S. August core PCE price index year-on-year will be announced; on Thursday at 20:30, the number of initial jobless claims in the U.S. for the week ending September 26 will be released, and on Friday at 20:30, the U.S. September seasonally adjusted non-farm employment population and unemployment rate will be published.Regarding officials' speeches, on Thursday at 16:00, Bank of England Governor Bailey will speak, and at 21:30, European Central Bank President Lagarde will speak. Starting from early Wednesday, Federal Reserve officials will have a series of public activities; 2027 FOMC voting member and Chicago Fed President Goolsbee, along with 2028 FOMC voting member and St. Louis Fed President Bullard, will speak in succession, and FOMC permanent voting member and New York Fed President Williams will deliver a keynote speech at the University at Buffalo. On Thursday, Federal Reserve Governor Cook, Minneapolis Fed President Kashkari, and Richmond Fed President Barkin will speak in turn, and on Friday, Williams and Dallas Fed President Logan will still have public activities. In terms of U.S. stocks, Micron will release its earnings report after the market on Wednesday, and Nike will announce its latest quarterly earnings report on Thursday, with both companies corresponding to storage chips and consumer demand.

Semiconductor analysis firm Kernel Insight: Demand for artificial intelligence drives DRAM prices to maintain historical highs, with the unit area sales value of the latest process DRAM exceeding the wafer prices of TSMC's N2 and N3. The firm estimates TSMC's 300mm N3 wafer price at $20,000 and N2 at $30,000, translating to nominal prices of approximately $0.283 per square millimeter and $0.424 per square millimeter, respectively, not accounting for edge losses, cutting losses, yield, and defects.Based on a price of $1.50 per Gb and generational bit density calculations, 1y DRAM is $0.329 per square millimeter, 1z is $0.410 per square millimeter, and 1b is $0.654 per square millimeter, more than 50% higher than N2. The 10nm process gradually shrinks in the order of 1y, 1z, 1a, and 1b. The above prices per Gb assume they are close to spot prices; DRAMeXchange data shows that on September 21, the average transaction price for 16Gb DDR5 eTT chips was $24.80, approximately $1.55 per Gb.There are differences in comparison metrics. TSMC's figures represent the wafer foundry prices paid by customers, while the DRAM figures represent the total sales potential of finished products and do not include advanced packaging costs; TSMC's actual supply prices will vary with order volumes and contracts. DRAM metrics are based on small spot prices, differing from the long-term contract prices of Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron's revenue entities. Recently, non-public fixed trading prices have strengthened; if they have not yet fully reflected in spot prices, the leading margin of wafer unit prices for memory manufacturers may be even greater.