Nvidia (NVDA) is up 4.33% in Thursday’s premarket. The spark that lit the fuse was Micron’s (MU) knockout earnings report and fourth-quarter guidance.
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On the surface, it might look like Micron just had a good day. But the underlying message is simple: AI memory demand isn’t just strong, it’s accelerating fast. And when memory demand rips higher, Nvidia’s pipeline benefits.
Micron Delivered. And Then Some.
Micron posted Fiscal Q3 revenue of $9.3 billion, well ahead of Wall Street’s $8.84 billion estimate. EPS came in at $1.91, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60. Gross margin guidance for Q4 was a blazing 42%. Most crucially, management is calling for Q4 revenue to hit $10.7 billion, 15% sequential growth, and again above the Street’s consensus.
What drove the upside? Record DRAM revenue. Nearly 50% sequential growth in High Bandwidth Memory (HBM). Datacenter sales doubling year-over-year. These aren’t just good numbers, they’re Nvidia numbers. That’s what investors should be paying attention to.
HBM Is the Tell
Micron is now one of the key suppliers of HBM, the ultra-fast memory tech designed to feed AI accelerators like Nvidia’s H100 and Blackwell chips. If demand for HBM is surging, it means one thing: more GPUs are being built, sold, and deployed at scale. Essentially, Nvidia’s supply chain is moving at full throttle.
Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said it best during the earnings call: “We are on track to deliver record revenue with solid profitability and free cash flow in Fiscal 2025… driven by AI.”
Price targets are flying for Micron stock. Stifel took MU to $145. Piper Sandler to $165. Raymond James to $150. Barclays hiked to $140 — from $95. Yes, that’s a $45 jump. But the real signal is in Nvidia’s chart. Investors see the HBM boom and know exactly where it leads.
Is Nvidia a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
According to TipRanks data, Wall Street is still firmly in Nvidia’s corner. Of 40 analysts covering the stock, 35 rate it a Buy, four say Hold, and just one sees a Sell. The average 12-month NVDA price target is $175.28, about 13.6% above current levels, while the highest target sits at $250. That implies Nvidia still has plenty of room to run, at least on paper.
