Micron Technology briefly topped $1 trillion in market value for the first time on Tuesday, capping a sharp rally that has made the US memory chipmaker one of the clearest winners of the artificial intelligence boom. The rise came as investors continued to shift towards companies expected to benefit from Big Tech’s heavy AI spending, beyond the initial rush into graphics processor makers.

Micron’s shares settled at $895.88 after as much as 19.29 per cent earlier in the session. The latest jump followed UBS raising its price target on the stock, nearly tripling it, to $1,625 from $535, the highest target among the 46 brokerages covering the company, according to LSEG data.

The milestone also highlighted the growing importance of memory chips in AI infrastructure. While Nvidia makes the processors used to train and run AI models, Micron mainly makes memory chips that store and move data. Its rise gives the US a stronger contender in a memory chip market that has largely been led by Asia.

South Korea’s Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest memory chipmaker, has already crossed the $1 trillion mark, while SK Hynix is also closing in. Samsung’s shares rose last week after it reached a late deal with its South Korean union to avert a strike.

However, a union representing the conglomerate’s consumer electronics workers said on Tuesday that it had asked a South Korean court to block a vote on the agreement. Any disruption at the world’s biggest memory chipmaker could push prices higher at a time when the AI boom has already led to shortages.

Micron, long seen as one of the semiconductor industry’s more cyclical companies, has seen its shares jump more than eightfold over the past 12 months. Strong earnings and supply chain constraints have given it greater pricing power. Micron's entire 2026 supply of high-bandwidth memory chips has already been sold out, underscoring how demand is running ahead of capacity.

As technology companies race towards artificial general intelligence, customers have been committing to longer-term data centre investments, lifting demand for advanced memory and storage, tightening supply and driving up prices.

Its next-generation HBM4 products are now in production. The company also emerged as one of the biggest institutional favourites in the first quarter, with about 2,440 institutions disclosing new positions, including Rockefeller Capital Management and Schroders, according to regulatory filings.

The company’s entry into the $1 trillion club marks a sharp recovery from the post-pandemic period, when memory chipmakers were dealing with excess supply as demand for personal computers and smartphones weakened amid decades-high inflation.

Among other brokerage firms, HSBC and Citi also have a 'buy' rating on the stock with a target price of $1,100 and $840, respectively. Other analysts from Barclays remained 'overweight' on it, while BNP Paribas and Bernstein have or 'outperform' rating on the stock.