MU Stock Could Mirror Oracle's Post-Earnings Surge, Citi Upgrade Says as AI Boom Fuels Momentum

Micron Technology shares rallied after Citi sharply raised its price target ahead of next week’s earnings, as the AI boom is expected to further fuel memory chip demand.

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The bank upgraded its target to $175 from $140 while maintaining a Buy rating ahead of the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter results on September 23. The new target implies roughly 25% upside, underscoring Micron’s position as a key beneficiary of the AI boom and its solid partnership with Nvidia.

“We expect the company to report in-line results and guide well above consensus driven by higher DRAM and NAND sales and pricing,” Citi analysts led by Christopher Danely wrote in a Thursday note. “We believe the continued memory upturn is being driven by limited production and better than expected demand, particularly from the data center end market (55% of Micron revenue).”

Citi lifted its fiscal 2026 revenue forecast to $56 billion from $54.5 billion and EPS estimate to $15.02 from $14.62 — about 26% higher than consensus. For the upcoming quarter, the bank projects revenue guidance of $13 billion and EPS guidance of $3.23, compared with Wall Street’s expectation of $11.09 billion in revenue and $2.85 EPS.

Citi also highlighted surging AI-related demand: “Our checks indicate demand from the AI sector increased sharply as C25 CSP capex rose by $18 billion during earnings season, and we believe this will lead to potential upside at Micron.”

Morgan Stanley added that NAND is set to play a larger role in AI, estimating that AI-related NAND demand could account for 34% of the global NAND market by 2029, expanding the total addressable market by $29 billion. Micron, one of the top NAND suppliers alongside Samsung, SK Hynix, Kioxia, and Western Digital, has been steadily gaining market share in enterprise SSDs, with revenue now nearing that of SK hynix/Solidigm.

Micron is also a critical supplier of advanced memory chips, particularly HBM, used in Nvidia’s GPUs and AI platforms. The stock has surged 80% YTD, giving the company a market cap of about $170 billion.

The upgrade follows Oracle’s stock marking its best day since 1993 after the software giant reported a $455 billion backlog (RPO), a 3.3x increase from the previous quarter, driven primarily by OpenAI, with Meta and Elon Musk’s xAI also contributing. The company even expects RPO to break $500 billion in the coming weeks. With AI demand surging, Micron could also deliver a similar surprise as a key beneficiary.