Micron’s Jaw-Dropping Earnings Show It Is Leaving Nvidia Behind in the AI Boom
Micron’s Jaw-Dropping Earnings Show It Is Leaving Nvidia Behind in the AI Boom
Rich DupreyThu, June 25, 2026 at 11:44 AM UTC
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Quick Read -
Micron's Q3 2026 earnings crushed estimates with $41.5B in revenue and $25 EPS, sending shares 18% higher in pre-market trading.
Micron generated $28B in profits last quarter, far exceeding Nvidia's $19B net income at a comparable AI growth stage.
Micron's $1.2 trillion market cap is roughly one-third of Nvidia's valuation when it posted comparable revenue and profit figures.
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Artificial intelligence has created a handful of corporate winners, but one company has towered above the rest. Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) became the face of the AI revolution as demand for its chips exploded, pushing its market value to roughly $4.8 trillion. Even after a pullback of nearly 16% from its all-time high, most investors still view Nvidia as one of the strongest long-term ways to invest in AI.
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That narrative has become so dominant that many investors may be overlooking another AI beneficiary posting numbers that look even stronger than Nvidia's did at a similar point in its growth cycle: Micron Technology (NASDAQ:MU).
Micron's Latest Earnings Were Hard to Ignore
Micron reported fiscal Q3 2026 earnings yesterday showing the memory-chip maker delivered stunning results that cleared Wall Street's expectations by a wide margin.
Metric
Reported
Analyst Estimate
Revenue
$41.5 billion
$35.1 billion
$25.11
$20.39
The market's reaction reflected just how far ahead of expectations Micron landed. Shares are surging 18% in pre-market trading this morning.
The key takeaway wasn't simply that Micron beat estimates. It was the scale of the business it has become. Revenue reached $41.5 billion in a single quarter as demand for high-bandwidth memory (HBM) and DRAM continued to benefit from AI infrastructure spending.
By themselves, though, the numbers don't quite catch the sweep of the achievement. Let's give them some perspective.
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Micron Is Already Matching Nvidia's Scale
One year ago, Nvidia reported what many investors viewed as one of its most remarkable earnings reports. In its fiscal 2026 first-quarter earnings release, the company generated:
Revenue of $44.1 billion
Net income of $18.8 billion
Those figures represented revenue growth of 69% and profit growth of 26% year over year. The market rewarded Nvidia handsomely for those results. Its stock soared 34% in the three months between its Q1 and Q2 earnings reports, and it added $1.13 trillion in market valuation.
Surprisingly, Micron's latest quarter stacks up even better on several measures. While its revenue of $41.5 billion was only modestly below Nvidia's $44.1 billion from a year ago, Micron generated approximately $28.2 billion in profits. In other words, Micron is already producing substantially more profit than Nvidia was at this stage.
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That comparison alone deserves investors' attention. Yet the guidance may be even more compelling.
The Valuation Gap Is Hard to Ignore
Micron's management expects fiscal Q4 revenue of roughly $50 billion and net income of approximately $35 billion. Compare that with Nvidia's next quarter from last year:
Company Snapshot
Revenue
Net Income
Nvidia (one year ago)
$46.7 billion
$25.8 billion
Micron (Q4 guidance)
$50.0 billion
$35.0 billion
Micron is forecasting higher revenue and more profit than Nvidia generated during the period that helped cement its reputation as the premier AI stock. Yet the valuation difference remains enormous.
Nvidia market cap one year ago: approximately $3.8 trillion
Micron market cap today: approximately $1.18 trillion
That means Micron is generating comparable -- and in some cases superior -- operating results on an absolute and percentage basis while carrying a valuation just one-third the size.
Granted, the comparison is not perfectly apples-to-apples. The AI market of 2025 and the AI market of 2026 are not identical. Today's industry faces challenges including land constraints for data centers, water availability concerns, power bottlenecks, component shortages, and investor scrutiny over whether massive AI spending will generate adequate returns.
If Nvidia's exact circumstances from a year ago were transplanted into today's environment, the outcome might not be identical.
Key Takeaway
Regardless, Micron's latest earnings report highlights a disconnect investors should not ignore. Micron is approaching Nvidia-like scale while generating profits that exceed what Nvidia reported at a similar point in its AI growth story. Its Q4 outlook suggests that momentum is still accelerating.
That doesn't guarantee Micron follows Nvidia's stock trajectory. Markets rarely repeat themselves perfectly. Regardless, the numbers suggest Micron may be one of the most undervalued AI infrastructure companies available today.
When a company growing this quickly trades at roughly one-third the valuation Nvidia commanded during a comparable phase of the AI boom, sharp investors should at least take a closer look. The opportunity may not be identical to Nvidia's, but the upside still appears far larger than many investors realize.
Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Micron Technology didn't make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.
Source: “AOL Money”
