Micron executives delivered optimistic remarks regarding the competitiveness of next-generation high-bandwidth memory chips at an industry conference, alleviating market concerns about the company lagging behind rivals in the HBM4 segment. This positive outlook, combined with Wall Street analysts raising their price targets, drove a broad-based rally in memory chip stocks.

Overnight, Micron's Chief Financial Officer Mark Murphy announced at the conference that the company has commenced mass production and shipment of HBM4 chips. "We are very excited about HBM's performance," Murphy stated. This comment directly addressed market worries that Micron might fall behind competitors like SK Hynix and Samsung Electronics in the HBM4 race.

On Wednesday, Morgan Stanley analyst Joseph Moore significantly raised his price target for Micron from $350 to $450, maintaining an Overweight rating. Moore noted that while SK Hynix is set to supply HBM4 products to Nvidia in the first quarter, Micron is expected to achieve the same goal starting in the second quarter.

The surge in demand for HBM chips has been a key driver behind Micron's stock rising more than threefold over the past 12 months. Micron's shares climbed 6.6% on Wednesday to close at $410.34. Confirmation that the company has achieved mass production and commercial shipment of HBM4 marks progress in line with expectations for this critical technology.

Micron's strong performance lifted the entire memory chip sector. SanDisk saw an intraday peak gain of 13.20%, Western Digital advanced 4.26%, and Seagate Technology closed up 2.88%.

**Mass Production Progress Alleviates Market Concerns** HBM4 represents the latest generation of high-bandwidth memory technology, crucial for supporting advanced AI chips from companies like Nvidia. Previous market concerns centered on Micron potentially losing ground to Korean competitors in this high-margin product segment.

Morgan Stanley's Moore indicated in his research report that while SK Hynix will supply HBM4 to Nvidia in the first quarter, Micron's ability to begin supplying in the second quarter makes the timing gap insignificant.

Moore anticipates another round of significant price increases in the first quarter, with 2026 supply growth unlikely to alleviate expected severe shortages. "We expect further price increases throughout this year," he wrote.

Karl Ackerman, Senior Analyst at Exane BNP Paribas, believes concerns about Micron's HBM4 position have been overstated. He noted that even if Nvidia doesn't allocate initial HBM4 orders to Micron, the chipmaker could still benefit from supply chain balancing through orders for other memory components.

Strong demand for HBM chips has created shortages in other memory types, driving industry-wide price increases. Ackerman analyzed that if Micron substitutes 20% of HBM4 share with 20% share in LPDDR5X memory modules, the profit generated in Nvidia's Vera Rubin computing racks would be comparable.

This supply-demand dynamic creates a favorable pricing environment for memory chip manufacturers like Micron. The high-margin nature of HBM chips makes them a critical product line driving Micron's performance growth.