For the longest time, Micron Technology (MU 1.14%) seemed like any other member of the highly cyclical semiconductor industry. Boom times of high demand for, and low supply of, computer memory, mostly for personal computers, would cause companies to overbuild production capacity, flood the market with chips, crash prices -- and bust Micron stock.
From the early 2000s to the late 2010s, investors grew accustomed to this cycle, learning not to get too excited during the boom times and to worry about the inevitable bust. Micron stock traded mostly in a tight range from $5 to $15. And yet, over the past 10 years, Micron stock has taken off like a rocket, growing more than 1,300%. If you'd invested $100 in Micron stock a year ago, you'd have more than $1,434 today.
So what changed? From 2018 to approximately 2024, Micron stock experienced a continuous series of higher highs and higher lows, until finally, in 2025, the stock surged dramatically higher.
Image source: Getty Images.
And the reason for this, in two words, is artificial intelligence.
And three more: High bandwidth memory.
As AI firms race to build large language models (LLMs), train them, and optimize the speeds at which they deliver answers to users (inference times), speed has become essential. The 3D stacked memory architecture in the high bandwidth memory chips that Micron builds helps satisfy AI firms' need for speed. This drives demand for the chips, sales of which are growing at an astounding 50% annual rate, helping Micron stock to nearly triple since the start of 2025.
NASDAQ: MU
Key Data Points
It's this AI phenomenon that has provided the bulk of Micron's share price growth over the past decade. And with HBM still making up only about 15% of Micron's revenue, there's every reason to believe that Micron's run is not yet done.
