Shares shifted as Micron Technology delivered fiscal fourth-quarter results that blew past Wall Street estimates, capping a year in which the memory giant's revenue nearly quadrupled. Yet even as AI-fueled demand rewrites the company's financial profile, a brewing labor conflict at its largest manufacturing hub adds a wrinkle investors cannot ignore.
A Quarter That Dwarfs Anything in Micron's History
Revenue almost quadrupled in the fiscal fourth quarter from $11.32 billion a year earlier , reaching $54.23 billion, above the consensus estimate of $51.33 billion . Non-GAAP EPS hit $33.42, up 33% sequentially, while operating margin reached 82.3% . For investors, those margins mean each dollar of sales converts to profit at a rate rarely seen in hardware manufacturing.
AI Demand Is Writing the Next Chapter — and It Looks Even Bigger
Micron guided fiscal first-quarter revenue to roughly $61.5 billion with adjusted EPS of $38.15, well above analysts' expectations of $35.40 in EPS on $57 billion in revenue . Management said AI memory demand remains tight through 2028, with over 75% of fiscal 2027 shipments locked in via long-term supply agreements . That kind of forward visibility is unusual for a cyclical chipmaker and gives Micron pricing power that underpins its sky-high gross margin.
Full-Year Numbers Underscore a Transformed Company
Fiscal 2026 revenue reached a record $133.2 billion, up 256% from a year earlier, while diluted EPS rose 811% to $75.52 . Gross margin expanded to 81.1%, up from 41.1% in fiscal 2025 . Adjusted free cash flow was $33.2 billion in Q4 alone, and the company ended the year with $73.5 billion in cash and investments — a war chest that could fund both factory expansion and shareholder returns.
A Taiwan Strike Threat Clouds the Supply Picture
Workers at Micron's Taoyuan operations voted 1,994 to 14 — 99% approval — to authorize a strike over the company's bonus structure . Micron employs about 15,000 people in Taiwan; the larger Taichung union (~11,000 members) has not yet voted and returns to mediation October 22, making its decision the bigger risk . Taiwan is a crucial production center for Micron's DRAM and high-bandwidth memory chips . Any disruption at a time of tight supply could ripple through data-center build-outs globally — or, conversely, force a quick and generous resolution that raises operating costs.
The +3.7% jump to ARS 350,250 shows the market is betting that earnings power overwhelms labor risk — for now.