Micron Technology Reaches New All-Time High; Memory Industry Shortage May Continue Through 2027

How does the AI strike vote at Samsung affect global chip supply?

South Korea’s largest union organization at Samsung, the “National Samsung Electronics Union (NSEU),” has threatened to hold a vote on Samsung’s largest-ever strike plan. If the vote passes this Wednesday, chip production will be halted in May. As the world’s largest memory chip manufacturer, a strike at Samsung could exacerbate global semiconductor supply bottlenecks.

Overnight, U.S. storage chip stocks rose across the board, with Western Digital up over 9%, Seagate Technology up over 5%, and Micron Technology up over 4%. Micron became the first major tech stock to hit a new all-time high since the recent U.S. tech stock correction.

CITIC Securities research reports indicate that since February, the storage industry has maintained high levels of prosperity, driven by better-than-expected performance and guidance from Kioxia, NAND contract prices rising in Q1, and domestic module manufacturer Buwei Storage releasing Q1-Q2 earnings reports exceeding expectations. This further confirms the high industry prosperity. CITIC Securities remains optimistic about storage demand exceeding expectations, expecting supply and demand imbalance to continue into the first half of 2027. Industrial Securities notes that, overall, it will be difficult for the storage industry to achieve scaled and efficient supply by 2026. This trend is also affecting upstream semiconductor equipment and packaging/testing sectors, with domestic storage chip design, storage module manufacturers, semiconductor equipment, and packaging/testing companies all expected to benefit.

According to the Caixin News thematic database, among related listed companies:

Buwei Storage expects to achieve operating revenue of 4 to 4.5 billion yuan in January-February 2026, a year-on-year increase of 340% to 395%. The company stated on an interactive platform that North American clients are actively communicating with manufacturers to help secure capacity.

Demingli mainly engages in the research, development, and sales of storage module products, and has the capability to design and develop flash memory controllers, committed to providing comprehensive storage solutions for customers.

(Caixin News)