Micron CEO pushes back on memory bear case in CNBC interview, citing AI-driven demand across devices

Micron and its main rivals, SK Hynix and Samsung, have seen soaring profits and stock prices despite a recent pullback. All three companies are investing billions in new capacity, but Mehrotra noted that there is a multiyear lag between breaking ground and shipping chips. Wall Street's biggest question is how long the cycle will last, and Micron's stock trades at less than 7 times forward earnings, reflecting skepticism that the boom will end in a bust.

Mehrotra said demand for memory is coming from everywhere, not just data centers. AI-enabled phones, PCs, and self-driving cars all need more memory content. "Today there is no AI without memory," he explained. "AI systems need more memory. They need higher performance memory. They need lower power memory." He also pointed to agentic AI and larger context windows as additional drivers. The original iPhone had 128 megabytes of DRAM; today's models have 8 to 12 gigabytes.

The shift to high-bandwidth memory (HBM) is another factor behind the shortage. Leading AI chips from Nvidia, AMD, and Google use HBM, which is essentially multiple DRAM wafers stacked together. Micron, SK Hynix, and Samsung are shifting capacity toward HBM, so AI chips, smartphones, laptops, and vehicles are all competing for the same basic DRAM supply. Mehrotra's comments suggest that the memory industry's relationship with customers is deepening, and that the current cycle may indeed be different.