Asian stocks surge after Micron’s record earnings ease AI fears

Micron ↘0.31% reported record fiscal Q3 revenue and an 84.9% gross margin, sending shares up more than 14% in after-hours trading Wednesday.cnbc
South Korea’s KOSPI surged while Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed over 2% Thursday as SK Hynix and Samsung led gains, according to Reuters.globalbankingandfinance
Micron said customers committed $22 billion for memory chips and guided for roughly $50 billion in quarterly revenue, easing doubts about AI spending durability.globalbankingandfinance

SK Hynix and Samsung Shares Surge After Micron’s Blowout Earnings

South Korean and Japanese stocks rallied sharply on Thursday as investors rushed back into semiconductor names following record-breaking quarterly results from Micron Technology, which reported after the U.S. market close on Wednesday. The earnings report helped ease fears about the durability of the AI-driven memory boom after a selloff earlier in the week.

Asian Markets Jump

South Korea’s Kospi, the world’s best-performing stock market in 2026, gained 5.5% in Thursday trading, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose more than 2%, according to Reuters. SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics led the advance in Seoul as investors priced in the implications of Micron’s guidance for memory chip demand through the rest of 2026 and beyond.globalbankingandfinance

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose 1.3% in early trading, while S&P 500 futures gained 0.5% and Nasdaq futures jumped 1.8%.globalbankingandfinance

Micron’s Record Quarter

Micron reported fiscal third-quarter revenue of $41.46 billion, more than quadrupling from $9.3 billion a year earlier, with gross margins hitting a company record of 84.9%. Net income reached $28.24 billion, also a record. The company said customers had committed $22 billion for its memory chips, while issuing guidance for approximately $50 billion in revenue for the current quarter.cnbc

The results, reported Wednesday afternoon, sent Micron shares up more than 14% in after-hours trading. The Wall Street Journal noted that the report helped quiet growing doubts about the sustainability of AI-related spending.wsj

Broader Context

The sharp rally came after Micron stock had fallen 13% earlier in the week as SK Hynix overtook Samsung to become South Korea’s most valuable company. That selloff had raised concerns about whether the memory chip rally — which has driven Micron shares up roughly 270% in 2026 — was overextended.investopedia

Micron’s disclosure that it has secured long-term fixed-price agreements with hyperscale cloud customers suggested supply constraints could persist beyond 2027, reinforcing the thesis that AI-driven demand for high-bandwidth memory remains far from saturated.moomoo