Why Micron Stock Is Jumping Today

Micron (NASDAQ: MU) stock is making gains in Tuesday's trading. The memory technologies company's share price was up 6.1% as of 11:15 a.m. ET, despite the S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) being down 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) down 1.2%.

Micron is climbing today after Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang mentioned the company as a components supplier during his keynote speech at the kickoff of CES last night in Las Vegas. Huang said that Micron's chips would be included as part of his company's upcoming GeForce RTX 50 line of chips.

Start Your Mornings Smarter! Wake up with Breakfast news in your inbox every market day. Sign Up For Free »

Micron stock surges on Nvidia's CES mentions

Last night, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang gave a keynote address to start this year's CES trade expo. As the world's most influential artificial intelligence (AI) company, investors are paying close attention to Nvidia's strategic moves and business relationships. Micron's chips are already being included as part of the B200 and GB200 processors in Nvidia's Blackwell line, and it looks like integration of its memory solutions is poised to expand with subsequent releases.

While the earliest releases in the Blackwell family have been concentrated on meeting AI processing needs in data centers, Nvidia is now broadening the family with new chips for the gaming market. The GeForce RTX 50 will make use of Micron's high-bandwidth memory (HBM) solutions and is a consumer-level chip.

What's next for Micron?

Micron investors may have been hoping that Nvidia would share more news about its upcoming GB300 processor for the AI data center market, but being spotlighted as a components partner was still a bullish development for the memory-tech company. If there's one partner you want in the AI hardware space right now, it would be hard to pick a better player than Nvidia. Signs that the relationship between the two companies continues to be strong could help allay recent concerns about the memory specialist's growth outlook.

With its last quarterly report, Micron delivered forward guidance that shocked the market and prompted big sell-offs for its stock. While the average Wall Street target had called for revenue of $8.98 billion and earnings per share of $1.91 in the current quarter, Micron guided for sales of just $7.9 billion and per-share earnings of $1.43. The company's management cited weakness in sections of the consumer market and inventory adjustments as reasons for the comparatively soft sales and earnings guidance.

But Micron's recent design wins with Nvidia highlight its long-term opportunity in the AI memory solutions space. Along those lines, the company expects that the annual market for HBM chips will expand to $100 billion by 2030 -- up from $16 billion in 2024. With the stock still down 31% from its high even on the heels of some recent rebound momentum, Micron stock deserves a close look from AI investors.

Don’t miss this second chance at a potentially lucrative opportunity

Ever feel like you missed the boat in buying the most successful stocks? Then you’ll want to hear this.

On rare occasions, our expert team of analysts issues a “Double Down” stock recommendation for companies that they think are about to pop. If you’re worried you’ve already missed your chance to invest, now is the best time to buy before it’s too late. And the numbers speak for themselves:

• Nvidia: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2009, you’d have $387,474!*
• Apple: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2008, you’d have $46,399!*
• Netflix: if you invested $1,000 when we doubled down in 2004, you’d have $475,542!*

Right now, we’re issuing “Double Down” alerts for three incredible companies, and there may not be another chance like this anytime soon.

See 3 “Double Down” stocks »

*Stock Advisor returns as of January 6, 2025

Keith Noonan has positions in Micron Technology. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.