Micron faced a lot of backlash late in 2025 when it announced that after 30 years of servicing consumers with its brand of "Crucial" storage products and RAM for gamers, it would be shutting up shop to focus on other forms of revenue. Now, Micron has published its business figures for the beginning of 2026, just a month after Crucial was officially axed, and revenues are soaring.
Surprisingly, it isn't supplying AI companies and their data centers that are showing the biggest area of growth for Micron; it's "Mobile and Client" streams. To be clear, manufacturing DRAM for cloud and data centers is still the main source of revenue for Crucial, forming $18.8 billion of the company's total $23.86 billion total revenue.
I can only guess that due to the massive price increases we're all seeing due to the global RAM shortages, Micron's consumer-facing sales for "clients" have been its biggest financial gain in the last fiscal quarter. According to Micron, its revenue in the client-facing business unit is up from $4.25 million in the previous quarter to $7.71 million this time around.
"Micron set new records across revenue, gross margin, EPS, and free cash flow in fiscal Q2, driven by a strong demand environment, tight industry supply, and our strong execution, and we expect significant records again in fiscal Q3,” said Sanjay Mehrotra, Chairman, President, and CEO of Micron Technology.
Micron's overall revenue of $23.86 billion is up from $13.64 billion during the previous quarter and up from $8.05 billion for the same period last year.
"In the AI era," the CEO continued, "memory has become a strategic asset for our customers, and we are investing in our global manufacturing footprint to support their growing demand. Reflecting confidence in the sustained strength of our business, our board has approved a 30% increase in our quarterly dividend.”
It's interesting to me that despite these gains in "mobile and client" business sectors, the CEO referenced memory being a strategic asset for "customers." Yes, Micron, but which customers is that? Clearly not the ones that were important to the Crucial brand, but more likely, Mehrotra is referencing his B2B partners here.
Interestingly, the total revenue for Micron this quarter is now more than the estimated combined revenues of Intel ($13.67 billion) and AMD ($10.27 billion), which goes to show just how much the RAMpocalypse is helping manufacturers of storage and memory to rake in profits at the moment.
It's estimated that memory makers in particular will pull in $551 billion thanks to the influx of AI infrastructure, and with supply channels agreed in contracts until 2028, things aren't set to slow down anytime soon.
Meanwhile, inflation on RAM is through the roof for consumers, and shortages are wreaking havoc on gamers who hope to build their own gaming PC, or for those who eagerly await new hardware like the Steam Frame and Steam Machine. Even the best DDR5 RAM deals available will now set you back roughly $200 more (at least) than they would have this time last year.
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