Micron jumps 12% with an 86.8% gross margin as CoreWeave raises its 2026 outlook to $13.3 billion
Micron jumped 12% and the memory complex followed after CoreWeave raised its outlook, but the filings split the spoils: Micron's gross margin hit 86.8% while CoreWeave's interest bill nearly tripled and its adjusted margin narrowed to 10%. The risk in this rally sits with CoreWeave's lenders.
Vincent Jiangthree-minute read
Memory stocks ran on CoreWeave's raise
Micron+9.36% — Micron, up 9.36 percent today, the largest US memory maker, rose about 12% on Wednesday, with SK hynix+7.43% — SK hynix, up 7.43 percent today up 10.5% and SanDisk up 15.7% 1. The spark came after Tuesday's close, when CoreWeave+16.01% — CoreWeave, up 16.01 percent today, the AI cloud that rents out Nvidia−5.72% — Nvidia, down 5.72 percent today computing power, posted third-quarter revenue of $3.66 billion, up 168%, and raised its 2026 revenue outlook to $13.0 to $13.3 billion 23. Chief executive Michael Intrator called it "a breakout quarter" 3.
Nebius+11.41% — Nebius, up 11.41 percent today, a rival AI cloud that reports Thursday, jumped 17%, and Marvell+6.36% — Marvell, up 6.36 percent today added 10% 14. Nvidia rose 3.7%, its first gain in three sessions, though it remains down about 14% this month after a board investigation into its chief executive and a Baird cut to Neutral 5.
Memory suppliers jumped 10 to 16% on CoreWeave's raised outlook
Memory names took three of the rally's five biggest gains
Data
| Value | |
|---|---|
| CoreWeave | 22.6% |
| Nebius | 17.2% |
| SanDisk | 15.7% |
| Micron | 12.2% |
| SK hynix | 10.5% |
| Marvell | 10.2% |
| Nvidia | 3.7% |
The supplier keeps the margin, the buyer pays the interest
CoreWeave buys Micron and SanDisk output under long-term supply deals and holds priority access to Solidigm's enterprise SSDs 13. The two filings split the money. Micron's September quarter, reported September 30, earned an 86.8% gross margin on $54.2 billion of revenue and $37.7 billion of net income, guided its December quarter to $61.5 billion, and collected $12.7 billion of customer deposits in fiscal 2026 6.
CoreWeave's quarter ran the other way: adjusted operating margin narrowed to 10% from 16%, net interest expense rose to $846 million from $310 million, and the net loss widened to $709 million 3. Its guided fourth-quarter interest bill, $1.05 to $1.15 billion, sits beside full-year adjusted operating income guidance of $1.275 to $1.375 billion 3. Micron kept 87 cents of every revenue dollar as gross profit; CoreWeave paid 23 cents of every revenue dollar to its lenders 36.
CoreWeave's interest bill has closed in on its operating income
The guided December interest bill is near the full-year adjusted operating income target
- Net interest expense
- Estimate
Data
| Net interest expense | |
|---|---|
| Q2 '26 | $0.31B |
| Q3 '26 | $0.85B |
| Q4 '26e (estimate) | $1.1B ($1.05–1.15B) |
Micron's revenue has run from $8.7B to $54.2B in eight quarters
Revenue has more than sextupled in eight quarters, and December is guided higher still
- Revenue
- Estimate
Data
| Revenue | |
|---|---|
| Q4 '24 | $8.7B |
| Q1 '25 | $8.1B |
| Q2 '25 | $9.3B |
| Q3 '25 | $11.3B |
| Q4 '25 | $13.6B |
| Q1 '26 | $23.9B |
| Q2 '26 | $41.5B |
| Q3 '26 | $54.2B |
| Q4 '26e (estimate) | $61.5B |
The relief case, and the Kioxia dent
The relief case has receipts: a $132.5 billion backlog of committed contracts, about $9 billion of customer prepayments expected within three months, $4.2 billion of convertible notes and a $2.6 billion loan facility behind a capex floor raised to $37 to $39 billion, adjusted EBITDA margin holding at 62%, and Nvidia committed to buy unsold capacity through April 2032 37. "Demand for compute is growing faster than the capacity to deliver that infrastructure," Intrator told analysts 5.
The skeptic file is dated too. Kioxia, the Japanese NAND maker, said September-quarter price rises slowed to the mid-20% range from 70% 8. Consensus puts Micron's fiscal 2027 capital spending at $54.5 billion of coming supply, against a stock at about 4 times forward earnings on EPS expected to climb from $75.52 to $176.50 1. And the funding gap beyond this quarter runs from Goldman Sachs' $23 billion to Bernstein's $76 billion, with the 2032 bonds near 16% 9.
December prices it
Micron's December report, guided to $61.5 billion of revenue at roughly an 86% gross margin, is the pricing test; Nebius on Thursday is the demand test 16. SK hynix has already sold more than half of its 2027 and 2028 capacity to 14 customers 1. The pricing test lands in December; the interest bill lands every quarter.
Get Chips by email, free
How AI demand is reshaping chipmakers, memory and the fabs behind them. In our daily email, every weekday.
