Micron Q3 earnings blowout: $41.5B revenue quad, $22B customer contracts lock HBM supply through 2027

Micron Technology posted fiscal Q3 2026 revenue of $41.46 billion, quadrupling the prior-year $9.30 billion on record AI memory demand, and reported 16 strategic customer agreements locking in roughly $100 billion in minimum contracted revenue over three to five years, with $22 billion in upfront customer deposits. The company guided Q4 revenue to $50 billion (plus/minus $1B), far exceeding analyst consensus of ~$44B, and projected gross margin expansion to approximately 86%. Adjusted diluted EPS of $25.11 beat consensus of ~$20.28 by 23.8%.

Micron's HBM production is fully sold out through 2026; the company reported zero line of sight to when supply catches up with demand. Record gross margin of 84.9% reflects both vertical supply constraints and aggressive take-or-pay customer agreements that shift financial risk from Micron to hyperscalers and cloud providers. The company raised its 2026 capex guidance to $27 billion (net of CHIPS Act grants) and signaled Q4 2026 capex will exceed $10 billion, with quarterly 2027 capex expected to exceed Q4 2026 levels—a signal of multi-year production expansion.

Stock surged 14.6% in after-hours trading to $1,199, extending the year-to-date rally to 700% and pushing Micron's market cap past $1.16 trillion. For architects, the take-or-pay contracts are the real story: hyperscalers have locked in committed volume purchases, structurally shifting the memory market from a spot-bid auction to multi-year supply guarantees. This locks in pricing and capacity for 12–24 months forward. The message is clear—HBM scarcity will dominate AI infrastructure planning through late 2027; architects must front-load memory allocation in any data center capex plan.