Aerosmith saw this coming.
In 1993, the band banged out a hit tune called "Livin' on the Edge," which described a world in some mighty serious trouble.
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The world is still a pretty troubled place today.
And now, in this age of artificial intelligence, we're living on a different kind of edge, specifically edge AI, where AI applications are deployed in devices throughout the physical world.
"It’s called 'edge AI' because the AI computation is done near the user at the edge of the network, close to where the data is located, rather than centrally in a cloud computing facility or private data center." AI-chipmaking titan Nvidia (NVDA) said in a blog post.
Nvidia said that advances in edge AI have opened opportunities for machines and devices, wherever they may be, to operate with the “intelligence” of human cognition.
"AI-enabled smart applications learn to perform similar tasks under different circumstances, much like real life," the post said.
Micron Technology (MU) is quickly transitioning into the AI sector with a new semiconductor designed to support generative-AI applications.
In February, Micron announced a development deal with Nvidia to insert high-bandwidth memory into its new H200 semiconductors. Micron says HBM helps data flow efficiently at relatively low power consumption.
CEO: 'Micron has retuned to profitability'
The Boise, Idaho, company, founded in 1978, is scheduled to report fiscal-third-quarter results on June 26.
In March, Micron posted adjusted second-quarter earnings of 42 cents a share on sales of $5.82 billion, compared with a loss of $1.91 a share on sales of $3.69 billion in the year-earlier period.
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Analysts polled by FactSet had expected Micron to lose 25 cents a share on sales of $5.35 billion in the latest period.
“Micron has returned to profitability and delivered positive operating margins a quarter ahead of expectation period,” Chief Executive Sanjay Mehrotra told analysts during the company’s earnings call. “Micron drove robust price increases as the supply-demand balance tightened.”
“This improvement is market conditions was due to a confluence of factors including strong AI-server demand, a healthier demand environment in most end markets and supply reductions across the industry," he said.
For the third quarter, Micron is estimating adjusted earnings of 45 cents a share on sales of $6.6 billion. Analysts had been looking for earnings of 9 cents a share on sales of $6 billion.
Micron analysts tweak price targets
On Monday, several analysts adjusted their price targets for Micron ahead of next week's earnings report.
Bank of America Securities raised the firm's price target on Micron to $170 from $144 and affirmed a buy rating on the shares.
B of A analysts expect Micron to be a key beneficiary of rising high-bandwidth- memory market share in cloud computing, and of the 12%-to-15% annual increase in DRAM requirements to support artificial intelligence PCs and smartphones.
The analysts said edge AI “will slowly but steadily supplement core or data center AI hardware.”
"To be sure, it's early days and there are no must-have AI apps for phones and PC," the firm said in a research note. "However, consumer hardware companies will regardless try to leverage rising consumer interest and growing software ecosystem momentum to drive a faster upgrade cycle."
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B of A said the same trend took place with the deployments of 4G and 5G when devices with advanced hardware preceded the emergence of mobile applications such as Meta Platforms' (META) Instagram social-media platform and ride-sharing provider Uber (UBER) .
"While 4G/5G ushered the need for better cellular modems/RF, we believe on-device AI will be most beneficial for processor and memory companies," the investment firm said.
B of A also raised its price target for chipmaker Arm Holdings (ARM) , to $180 from $150, and maintained a buy rating on the shares.
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Although data-center AI is enabling cloud/enterprise AI adoption at scale, B of A said, on-device or edge AI applications "promise faster performance (lower latency), personalization, privacy (your data stays on device), and ability to offload AI inferencing costs (and energy requirements) to the device."
Cantor Fitzgerald analyst C.J. Muse boosted the firm's price target on Micron to $180 from $150 and kept an overweight rating on the shares.
Muse said that he expected Micron to post a solid beat and raise against analysts' estimates, with upside coming from both DRAM and NAND, while HBM chips are a likely upside surprise as well.
The analyst said he expected these trends to carry forward into the August quarter guidance as well, leading to consensus estimates moving higher once again.
Susquehanna raised the firm's price target on Micron to $185 from $143 and maintained a positive rating on the shares.
The firm raised estimates across the board and into the third-quarter earnings report to reflect increased confidence in the pricing trends for blended DRAM/NAND memory products.
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