(Boursier.com) — Micron , a semiconductor specialist whose products include dynamic memories, flash memories and semiconductor systems, soared 17% before the market on Wall Street, to the highest ever the day after the quarterly financial results. For its second fiscal quarter, the group posted adjusted earnings per share of 42 cents, while analysts… expected a loss. Revenues were $5.82 billion (+58%) versus $5.35 billion consensus. The forecasts are even more solid, since Micron envisages revenues ranging from 6.4 to 6.8 billion dollars in the third fiscal quarter just started, against around 6 billion consensus. Adjusted third-quarter earnings are expected to be between 38 and 52 cents per share, compared to a consensus of 24 cents.
Unsurprisingly, the group’s outperformance comes from strong demand for hardware linked to artificial intelligence. “We believe that Micron is one of the biggest beneficiaries in the semiconductor industry of the multi-year opportunity offered by AI,” insisted the group’s chief executive, Sanjay Mehrotra. The executive notes that Micron returned to profitability a quarter earlier than expected, and is therefore very positive about the outlook. According to him, 2024 will mark a rebound for the industry and 2025 will see record sales levels.
Micron is banking on its ultra-fast memories running on Nvidia chips to help data center operators develop AI software. AI-related systems use high-bandwidth memory ‘HBM’. Micron earned its first revenues from a form of this memory in the last quarter, notes Bloomberg. The group also indicates that its semiconductors are part of AI accelerators based on Nvidia graphics chips… The group anticipates several hundred million dollars in revenue from HBM products in 2024. Earlier this week, during At Nvidia’s GTC conference, its emblematic CEO Jensen Huang spoke of Micron as a leader in this new HBM technology deemed “vital” for AI systems.
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