Micron announced a supply agreement with AI startup Anthropic to provide high-bandwidth memory (HBM), DRAM, and SSD products, along with a strategic investment in Anthropic's latest funding round [1, 2]. The deal is designed to improve the performance, efficiency, and cost of Anthropic's AI models and support the company’s growth for years [1, 2]. Anthropic co-founder and CTO Thom Brown said, "Our compute strategy depends on optimizing every layer of the tech stack, and memory and storage systems are critical for efficiently training and delivering Claude services" [1].
Micron also uses Anthropic’s Claude AI model internally for software development and enterprise applications [1, 2]. Anthropic recently completed a $65 billion Series H funding round valuing it at $96.5 billion and confidentially filed for a US IPO earlier this month [1, 2]. Additionally, Anthropic secured AI compute resource agreements with companies including CoreWeave, Broadcom, and SpaceX [1].
After announcing the deal on June 22, Micron shares rose about 7% ahead of a strong quarterly earnings report [1, 2]. On June 24, Micron reported revenue of $41.46 billion for its fiscal third quarter, a 346% increase year-on-year that exceeded market expectations [3, 4, 5]. Adjusted earnings per share (EPS) came in at $25.11, more than 12 times last year’s result and beating analyst forecasts [3, 4, 5]. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra noted, "Customers recognize that memory and storage supply shortages will take considerable time to ease" [3]. After-hours, shares climbed as much as 16%, boosting related global memory stocks including Japan’s Kioxia and Korea’s SK Hynix [3, 6, 4, 7].
Micron forecasted fiscal Q4 revenue at $49 billion to $51 billion, with a $50 billion midpoint that surpasses analyst estimates [8, 9, 10, 4, 5]. The company plans to invest about $10 billion in capital expenditure for Q4, focusing on expanding HBM, advanced DRAM, and packaging capacity [4]. Micron has also signed 16 long-term contracts lasting 3 to 5 years with data center and automotive customers [10].
The memory market shows ongoing supply tightness driven by strong AI demand, especially for HBM, DRAM, NAND, and enterprise SSD components [3, 10, 4]. SK Hynix reportedly slowed plans to ramp up HBM4 production due to revised Nvidia AI chip demand forecasts, contributing to a selloff in some AI memory stocks including SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics earlier today [2, 6, 4].
Micron has surged over 700% in stock price in the past year, briefly surpassing a $1 trillion market capitalization. It is one of the few US companies capable of producing advanced HBM technology [3, 10, 4]. Micron’s strong earnings and strategic partnerships underscore its leading role in powering AI infrastructure.
Micron’s supply agreement with Anthropic and strong earnings come as AI-driven memory demand and supply tightness are expected to continue well beyond 2027 [10, 4].
