Micron Crushes Q3 Guidance, Posts $41.5B Revenue; Q4 Guide at $50B Shocks Wall Street

Micron Technology posted a record fiscal Q3 2026 revenue of $41.46 billion, beating analyst estimates of $35.69 billion by 16%, with adjusted EPS of $25.11 versus consensus of $20.49—a 23.8% beat. Gross margin hit 84.9%, a company record, driven by pricing power and favorable product mix in a structurally undersupplied market. The stock surged 14–17% in after-hours trading, adding over $100B in market value, as the memory chipmaker confirmed AI data center demand remains insatiable.

Micron guided Q4 revenue of $50 billion ± $1B, roughly $6–7B above analyst consensus and nearly 15% higher than the $43.6B consensus estimate. Q4 adjusted EPS guidance of $31 ± $1 and gross margin expansion to approximately 86% suggest the pricing cycle is extending further. The company disclosed 16 Strategic Customer Agreements with approximately $100B in minimum contracted revenue through 2030, including ~$18B in upfront cash deposits—locking in floor pricing and protecting Micron's margin floor.

Data center revenue exceeded $25 billion in Q3, representing an annualized run rate above $100 billion. HBM4 is ramping twice as fast as HBM3E, with Micron already having shipped over $1 billion in HBM4 revenue. Management said supply tightness will extend beyond calendar 2027 with 'no line of sight' to when memory supply catches demand. The company raised FY2026 capex to ~$27B net of government incentives and pledged to return 100% of excess free cash flow to shareholders.

For data center architects and cloud operators, this signals multi-year margin tailwinds for suppliers but rising hardware input costs for buyers. Apple's mid-cycle price hikes on Macs and iPads following the Micron print showed the pressure on the cost side. Micron's structural positioning in AI memory—not just a cyclical super-cycle—reshapes how investors value memory stocks and supply-chain planning for 2027–2028.