MW Here's just how quickly Micron has risen up the ranks of the top U.S companies

By Hannah Pedone and Emily Bary

At the start of last year, Micron wasn't even among the top 100 U.S. companies. Its fortunes have changed dramatically since then.

On Friday, Micron crossed the $600 billion market-cap threshold for the first time.

At the start of 2025, Micron Technology sat just outside of the top 100 U.S. companies when looking at market capitalization. Now it's on track for the No. 13 spot.

Micron $(MU)$, with a $665 billion market capitalization, has seen its stature grow rapidly as memory chips have proved a major bottleneck to the artificial-intelligence buildout.

The company crossed the $600 billion market-cap threshold for the first time on Friday, according to Dow Jones Market Data. That was less than a month and a half after it first became a $500 billion company and just seven months after it reached the $200 billion threshold.

"As recently as a year ago, Memory was considered one of the lower-value parts of the compute market," D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria told MarketWatch. Memory chips were seen as a commodity that largely fed into consumer-facing products.

The memory market has historically been cyclical, with Luria noting that in 2023, "oversupply in some memory markets resulted in a sharp downturn and negative margins."

Read more: Micron's stock is gaining. Here's why the semiconductor trade has sprung back to life.

The past booms and busts within the memory market have kept Micron's stock multiple in check despite soaring near-term earnings. As of Friday, the stock traded at a 6.55x forward price-to-earnings multiple, the seventh-lowest in the S&P 500, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

Luria thinks things might be different now. "A range of memory products is now in short supply and may be in that state for a while longer," he said. Products like high-bandwidth memory seem like less of a commodity thanks to their application in AI data centers.

Additionally, Micron, along with other memory and storage companies, has started to sign long-term supply agreements with customers. That trend is expected to reduce earnings volatility over a multiyear span.

At least through the end of 2027, investors may come to feel that Micron's "margins are are really sustainable, and these guys are going to put up tremendous cash flow and profitability and can still probably squeeze more life out of their customers," Stifel analyst Brian Chin told MarketWatch.

Micron shares are up 7% in midday trading on Monday.

See also: Micron's stock has boomed on AI optimism. Now comes the 'tricky part.'

-Hannah Pedone -Emily Bary

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May 04, 2026 12:15 ET (16:15 GMT)

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