Micron HBM 2026 years sold out, unlike Nvidia

Analysts say that US semiconductor company Micron is not a hard-to-replace monopoly like Nvidia in the age of artificial intelligence. The two companies have been mentioned in similar terms because both benefit from expanding AI demand. However, their market positions and competitive barriers differ.

Micron’s high-bandwidth memory (HBM) is 2026 described as sold out through the year. The possibility of a supply shortage next year was also mentioned. This is high-performance memory used in AI accelerators.

Micron’s return on equity was 40%. A forecast also said the potential market for high-bandwidth memory could grow to 2028 as much as 1,000 billion dollars by then. In this respect alone, it was assessed as resembling Nvidia.

The difference came down to market power. Nvidia competes in the AI accelerator market by leveraging both its software ecosystem and its strength in chip design. Micron, by contrast, is a memory semiconductor company, making it difficult to avoid price competition within the same product category.

Memory semiconductors are heavily affected by price trends. When supply is scarce, profits can improve rapidly, but prices may fall as supply increases. This has led to assessments that Micron is difficult to view in the same way as Nvidia.

In the South Korean stock market, memory semiconductor and high-bandwidth memory-related stocks are often grouped together as moving in the same direction. This assessment presented both the strength of AI demand and the differences in the competitive structure of memory companies. Domestic investors are in a position where they need to monitor related companies’ order backlogs and price trends.