Shares of Micron (NASDAQ:MU) fell more than 4% in premarket trading on Thursday after the chipmaker outlined a major increase in capital expenditure, unsettling investors despite another quarter of strong earnings driven by demand for artificial intelligence.
Micron’s stock has already risen sharply, gaining more than 61% so far this year after soaring over 240% in 2025. The company said it plans to increase its fiscal 2026 capital spending by $5 billion to keep pace with rising demand, lifting total investment for the current year to more than $25 billion.
The company also signaled that spending will climb further in 2027, with factory expansion expected to push construction-related costs more than $10 billion higher compared with 2026.
Micron exceeded Wall Street forecasts for its fiscal second quarter and projected third-quarter revenue of $33.5 billion, plus or minus $750 million. That compares with analysts’ average estimate of $24.29 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
“Investors wager that these are peak earnings and will be unsustainable,” said Mike O’Rourke, chief market strategist at JonesTrading.
“Micron also increased its capex forecast to continue to add production capacity. That reinforces the belief that the memory shortage is a temporary phenomenon and business will return to its commodity nature in coming years as capacity comes online.”
Micron is one of just three global suppliers of high-bandwidth memory chips used in artificial intelligence systems, alongside South Korea’s Samsung and SK Hynix.
Shares of Samsung and SK Hynix ended Thursday’s session down 3.84% and 4.07%, respectively.
Other U.S. memory-related companies also declined in premarket trading, with shares of Western Digital, Seagate Technology and Sandisk falling between 2% and 4%.
As major U.S. technology firms continue investing billions in long-term AI data-center infrastructure, the rapid expansion of computing capacity has fueled a surge in demand for advanced memory chips.
This race for supply has created shortages and pushed prices higher, conditions that helped Micron deliver record profit margins in the quarter that ended in February.