Micron halted consumer memory sales amid surging AI-chip demand for specialized memory (HBM, GDDR).

Micron announced on Wednesday that it plans to stop selling memory to consumers to focus on meeting demand for high-powered artificial intelligence chips. According to Sumit Sadana, Micron's business chief, "The AI-driven growth in the data center has led to a surge in demand for memory and storage. Micron has made the difficult decision to exit the Crucial consumer business in order to improve supply and support for our larger, strategic customers in faster-growing segments." The consumer-facing Crucial brand sold memory sticks that could be used to build or upgrade personal computers, as well as solid-state hard drives.

This decision reflects the broader AI infrastructure boom, which is creating global shortages for critical inputs like memory. A handful of companies are committing to spend hundreds of billions in the next few years to build massive data centers. AI chips, such as GPUs made by Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices, require large amounts of the most advanced memory. For instance, Nvidia's current-generation GB200 chip has 192GB of memory per graphics processor, and Google's latest AI chip, the Ironwood TPU, requires 192GB of high-bandwidth memory. In contrast, consumer applications use significantly lower specifications—many laptops come with only 16GB of memory.

Micron competes against SK Hynix and Samsung in the high-bandwidth memory market, but it is the only U.S.-based memory supplier. Analysts have noted that SK Hynix serves as Nvidia's primary memory supplier. Micron supplies AMD, which maintains that its AI chips use more memory than competitors, providing them a performance advantage for running AI. AMD's current AI chip, the MI350, comes with 288GB of high-bandwidth memory. While Micron's Crucial business was not broken out separately in company earnings, the company's cloud memory business unit showed 213 percent year-over-year growth in the most recent quarter.

Micron's shares have risen approximately 175 percent this year, though they declined 3 percent on Wednesday to close at $232.25. Goldman Sachs analysts raised their price target on Micron stock to $205 from $180 on Tuesday, though they maintained their hold recommendation. The Goldman analysts wrote that due to "continued pricing momentum" in memory, they "expect healthy upside to Street estimates" when Micron reports quarterly results in two weeks. Regarding potential workforce impacts, Micron stated that it "intends to reduce impact on team members due to this business decision through redeployment opportunities into existing open positions within the company," though a company spokesperson declined to comment specifically on whether the move would result in layoffs.