---
title: "Supermicro's quarter is $4 billion above its guidance at 12% margins; Micron's Taiwan workers strike Thursday"
description: "Supermicro pre-announced a September quarter about $4 billion above its own guidance and its shares jumped after hours, but at roughly 12% gross margin most of that revenue is paid onward to the component makers. Micron's Taiwan workers strike on Thursday for a share of the profit collecting at the memory base."
publisher: "The Inference"
section: "Data Center"
published: 2026-10-20T23:33:40.057Z
modified: 2026-10-20T23:33:40.057Z
canonical: https://theinference.org/article/supermicro-s-quarter-is-4-billion-above-its-guidance-at-12-margins-micron-s-taiwan-workers-strike-thursday
language: en
keywords: "Supermicro, Micron, AI Servers, Memory, Labor, Earnings"
---

# Supermicro's quarter is $4 billion above its guidance at 12% margins; Micron's Taiwan workers strike Thursday

> Supermicro pre-announced a September quarter about $4 billion above its own guidance and its shares jumped after hours, but at roughly 12% gross margin most of that revenue is paid onward to the component makers. Micron's Taiwan workers strike on Thursday for a share of the profit collecting at the memory base.

[Supermicro](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/super-micro) told investors tonight that the quarter ended September 30, 2026, will land at [$18.5–19.5 billion of revenue, against the $14.5–15.5 billion it had guided](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1375365/000137536526000025/0001375365-26-000025-index.htm) [1]. Gross margin will come in at 12.0–12.5% rather than the planned 10.4–10.8% [1]. The shares of the San Jose server builder, run by founder-chairman [Charles Liang](https://theinference.org/markets/people/charles-liang), [jumped more than 10% after hours](https://seekingalpha.com/news/4654928-supermicro-spikes-after-raising-q1-revenue-guidance-by-4b) [2]. The full print follows on November 3, 2026 [1].

## What tonight adds to a month of Supermicro legal news

What is new after our reporting on [the indictment of a Supermicro co-founder](https://theinference.org/article/an-indicted-co-founder-a-5-6-billion-raise-and-a-probe-of-super-micro-s-board) and [the lawsuit against its board](https://theinference.org/article/super-micro-s-board-is-sued-over-the-2-5-billion-of-ai-servers-a-contractor-admitted-went-to-china) is the number itself. A former Supermicro contractor [pleaded guilty on October 8, 2026](https://thenextweb.com/news/super-micro-case-fixer-pleads-guilty-to-sending-ai-servers-to-china), in a scheme to divert about $2.5 billion of [Nvidia](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/nvidia)-powered servers to China [3]. Tonight's update adds a fact those stories could not: by the company's account, demand for its AI platforms outran its own plan [1].

*Chart: **Supermicro's preliminary September quarter is its largest in three years** Supermicro quarterly revenue in dollars billions from Q4 2024 through the preliminary September 2026 quarter, which is about $19 billion against a guided $15 billion*

*Quarterly revenue in USD billions, calendar quarters. The September 2026 quarter is preliminary, plotted at the midpoint of the company's $18.5–19.5 billion estimate. Reported figures from Supermicro's SEC filings; estimate from the October 20, 2026, update. [1][4]*

## At assembler margins, most of the surprise is paid onward

An assembler, a firm that builds servers from bought parts, keeps its gross margin and pays the rest onward. Supermicro's is about 12% [1]. About $4 billion of the September quarter's revenue was not in the company's plan [1]. At the pre-announced margins, that surprise keeps roughly $480 million as gross profit, and the rest goes to the companies that make the chips and memory [1].

[Jabil](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/jabil), which builds many of the same AI racks, expects its AI revenue to reach about $22.1 billion in its fiscal 2027 [5]. [Micron](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/micron) shows the other side of the trade: its latest quarterly gross margin was 87% [6]. The firms that turn scarce parts into working data centers are paid in volume, and the makers of the scarce parts are paid in margin.

## Barclays' question is what happens when memory prices normalize

[Barclays](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/barclays) analyst Tim Long raised the sharper question on October 14, 2026, [when he downgraded Dell, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and NetApp](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/barclays-downgrades-dell-stock-sharp-140627967.html). He said Dell's rally reflects "how well the company has offset memory cost inflation by raising prices," and he expects "a meaningful deceleration in growth over the next two years and memory price normalize and potentially decline" [7]. His note argued Dell's revenue boom owes more to rising memory prices than to enterprise AI demand [8].

Supermicro's quarter arrives days after that note, and it holds up the side Long credits at Dell. Gross margin widened versus the company's own guidance in a quarter of dearer components [1][8], which suggests pricing power rather than simple absorption of inflated parts. The path is less clean: the September estimate sits below the 17.5% of the quarter ended June 30, 2026 [4]. Whether Long's deceleration call is right turns on memory prices [7].

*Chart: **September's margin beats Supermicro's guidance while falling from the June quarter** Supermicro quarterly gross margin percent from Q3 2024 through the preliminary September 2026 quarter, swinging between about 6 and 18 percent*

*Gross margin as a percent of revenue, calendar quarters. The September 2026 quarter is preliminary, plotted at the midpoint of the company's 12.0–12.5% estimate. Reported figures from Supermicro's SEC filings; estimate from the October 20, 2026, update. [4][1]*

## Micron's workers are organizing for a share of the profit

The profit is collecting at the memory base, and the people who work there know it. Micron's Taoyuan union in Taiwan [will strike on Thursday, October 22, 2026](https://thenextweb.com/news/micron-taiwan-union-strike-profit-sharing), backing a second union that meets Micron that day for mediation at Taichung, where the company runs its largest facility in Taiwan [9][6]. Taiwan is where Micron makes the dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) that go into AI servers [9][6].

The unions want Micron to [tie quarterly bonuses to 15% of its operating profit](https://theinference.org/article/micron-s-taiwan-unions-demand-a-permanent-15-of-a-33-billion-quarter-s-profit), as Korean rivals Samsung and [SK hynix](https://theinference.org/markets/companies/sk-hynix) already do [9]. Micron has offered its Taiwan staff benefits worth 35 to 68 months of pay and says the offer is separate from the dispute [9]. With [more than 75% of its 2027 output already committed](https://theinference.org/article/micron-s-86-margin-floor-now-hangs-on-a-taiwan-strike-vote) [6], Micron's results suggest the pool has room for the bonuses being bargained over.

## The November print and Thursday's mediation decide what comes next

For anyone holding these names, the watch list is short. The question is whether the 12.0–12.5% margin holds into the November 3, 2026, print [1], and whether Thursday's strike and the Taichung mediation move the memory prices Barclays expects to normalize [7][9]. If the margin holds while the shortage lasts, Supermicro's pricing power is real; if memory prices roll over first, the deceleration Long forecasts lands on assembler revenue.

## Takeaway

Supermicro's $4 billion guidance raise at 12% margins shows the AI server boom's revenue lands with component makers, and Micron's Taiwan strike is labor's bid for a share of the profit collecting at the memory base.

## Sources

1. [Super Micro Computer, Supermicro Provides First Quarter of Fiscal Year 2027 Preliminary Business Update (Form 8-K, Exhibit 99.1), 20 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1375365/000137536526000025/0001375365-26-000025-index.htm)
2. [Seeking Alpha, Supermicro spikes after raising Q1 revenue guidance by $4B, 20 October 2026](https://seekingalpha.com/news/4654928-supermicro-spikes-after-raising-q1-revenue-guidance-by-4b)
3. [The Next Web, Super Micro case 'fixer' pleads guilty to sending AI servers to China, 10 October 2026](https://thenextweb.com/news/super-micro-case-fixer-pleads-guilty-to-sending-ai-servers-to-china)
4. [Super Micro, quarterly figures from its SEC filings, retrieved 20 October 2026](https://www.sec.gov/cgi-bin/browse-edgar?action=getcompany&CIK=0001375365)
5. [The Globe and Mail (TipRanks), Jabil Inc. Earnings Call: AI Boom Fuels 2027 Outlook, 2 October 2026](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/investing/markets/stocks/JBL-N/pressreleases/4938640/jabil-inc-earnings-call-ai-boom-fuels-2027-outlook/)
6. [Yahoo Finance (Aditya Raghunath), Micron Workers In Taiwan Announce Strike Over Escalating Bonus Dispute, 20 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/micron-workers-taiwan-announce-strike-131613220.html)
7. [Yahoo Finance (Sam Boughedda), Barclays downgrades Dell stock after sharp rally, 14 October 2026](https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/barclays-downgrades-dell-stock-sharp-140627967.html)
8. [FinanceFeeds, Dell Loses 18% in a Week as Barclays Shakes AI Optimism, 19 October 2026](https://financefeeds.com/dell-loses-18-in-a-week-as-barclays-shakes-ai/)
9. [The Next Web, Micron workers in Taiwan to strike as bonus talks with chipmaker fail, 20 October 2026](https://thenextweb.com/news/micron-taiwan-union-strike-profit-sharing)


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Supermicro's quarter is $4 billion above its guidance at 12% margins; Micron's Taiwan workers strike Thursday — The Inference. Canonical: https://theinference.org/article/supermicro-s-quarter-is-4-billion-above-its-guidance-at-12-margins-micron-s-taiwan-workers-strike-thursday