00:00And I watched the sickening decline in Micron
00:02I said to myself, I care more about Korea
00:04If Korea's up, they'll buy Micron
00:06And Korea was up
00:08So, they will buy Micron
00:09>> Yeah, and nice little flag on the Nikkei, too
00:11As we said, up 3.3% overnight
00:14>> Yeah
00:17No, I mean, look, we're in markets that are basically because Micron is big, but not as big as SK Hynix and not as big as Samsung
00:20If their stocks go up, what they're saying basically is we're all in the same boat
00:25>> Yeah
00:29Uh, and what Sanjay—I wish he had been, but Sanjay is not promotional at all—if I were Sanjay, I would say, look, we are choosing how much we're going to sell forward
00:34Maybe we sell 30% forward in 2030 because we think 2030 is going to be So much higher
00:40Let's just let it roll
00:45So you have to understand that the long-term agreements that they have are really not a floor to what they can earn, and a lot of people, I think, believe they're a ceiling, and that's a misread
00:51And the fact that he gave the employees more, which is something he did not talk about when I was there, yeah
00:56 >> Uh, is not a reason to sell this stock
00:57 >> Yeah
00:58Yeah
01:00That's you, you do tie it to the gross margin number and this employee compensation
01:01 >> What is it supposed to have? Gross margins of 100%
01:04It's unheard of
01:05I remember when Andy Grove once told me—I said he was at 64%
01:08I said, how come you can't do 70%? And he said, well, if you studied, then get back to it
01:11 >> Yes
01:14 >> Micron's terrific performance
01:15I mean..
01:16Very strong performance in their earnings report
01:18Yes
01:20Does that mean the AI correction is kind of done? >> Oh, absolutely
01:22This stock should not be down today
01:24It's crazy
01:26It's trading at six times earnings
01:28Six times
01:29The S&P trades at 21 times
01:32Yeah, six times current earnings
01:34>> Six times forward earnings based on the guidance they gave us yesterday
01:37And, by the way, the growth is 450%
01:50Yeah
02:03>> So, when you think about it, why would you buy the S&P 500 at 20 or 21 times earnings with 30 to 50% growth when you can buy Micron for six times earnings with 400 to 450% growth? But yes, I do think that, um, you start adding up all the bells that have been ringing from Micron guiding up and saying, uh, we can't Make enough of these DRAM chips for Microsoft, saying we're going to triple our data center capacity over the next several years, to support the rollout of Meta's Meta Quest and how quickly it's been
02:16You start adding up all those data points, and yeah, I absolutely think that this 40% correction in so many of the AI names over the past several, well not weeks but months—admittedly because I own them—I think it's over, and I think you need to buy them
02:31>> If you want to establish a part of your portfolio that deals with AI, >> I would go with Micron, Microsoft, Nvidia
02:36>> Yeah
02:39>> If I've got those three, I've got the AI deal covered
02:41>> Yes
02:43And we could add to that, Applied Digital, which operates data centers, Coreweave, which rents
02:46AI capacity from, uh, Applied Digital
02:49We could add Marvell technology, which, uh, makes the semiconductors that enable all of the data to be manipulated
02:58I mean, we could keep going, Stuart, but yes, I think it's a whole ecosystem, and that's the point
03:02 >> I want to play
03:04I want to be invested in the leaders of it
03:06 >> Yeah
03:07 >> Oh yeah
03:08Well, the ones you named, uh, what was it? What did you say? Uh, Micron, Nvidia, and Meta
03:09 >> Microsoft
03:10Yeah, I'll chuck me in as well
03:11 >> If you only owned those three, you would be very well served
03:15 >> Uh, look, I want to talk Micron for a second
03:17We got this blowout report from them yesterday
03:19I mean, it was a blowout report
03:21Okay, it's down today, but is the Micron earnings report strong enough to Keep the whole AI rally going? >> Yes
03:27And I'm going to steal the line from Ryan Spring there
03:29Nothing makes sense in the markets either when it comes to AI, because if you look at it, every single number here is irrefutable proof that AI has strong demand, not just this year, not just next year, but into 2030
03:41I mean, the thing that stood out to me the most in Micron's report is that over a third of their revenue is already guaranteed for the year 2030
03:50So, anyone worrying about demand waning, we have at least four more years of this supply shock, supply crunch happening in the memory side of the market
03:56That's before we introduce and talk about the power side, other chips, other critical components
04:01So, again, it doesn't..
04:03I don't make much sense, but what—what does make sense? Buying stocks that are growing earnings at triple-digit rates for eight times forward earnings
04:08So, I'm a buyer of Micron today
04:12I don't know what everyone else is thinking, why they're not backing up the truck here, but I see nothing but positive signs here
04:14Okay
04:17>> All right
04:19So, I, I mentioned Micron, right? Or the beginning of the week, I said it's the most important earnings release of the week
04:23And you know what? Maybe even the most important earnings season, to be honest with you
04:27It seemed antilimactic when it opened this morning, but you know, if this number had any hair on it, this stock would be down double digits, maybe even a lot more, and everyone would be
04:36Saying the AI trade is unwinding
04:38That's how critical it was
04:41In the meantime, you know, I can tell you, I saw a banner on the financial channel today that said management missed on the margin guidance
04:46They should have added an asterisk indicating that they're paying out massive bonuses to every single employee
04:50The manufacturing they're doing this quarter is for inventory, and they said this will be the lowest, the lowest margin—86%—which will be the lowest for the fiscal year, which is this first quarter
04:59Meanwhile, every firm on Wall Street has either reiterated their buy rating on it or has actually raised their target prices
05:06A couple of them I know have raised their targets
05:10Now, my next guest has been pounding the..
05:12Let's bring in Futurum Group, their chief market strategist Shai Balor
05:15Shai, congratulations, my man
05:19I love when you find these names and you stick with them
05:23Let me ask you, on a scale of one to ten, how would you rate the report, the release from last night, and the guidance? >> I would give it a strong nine
05:32And the reason it's not a ten is I do think there is some truth to what the bears are saying—that there is a little fear that this might be a peak in pricing, because the majority of the beat this cycle was driven by DAM pricing, which was going up and then sequentially high teens
05:48We also had NAND pricing up around 30%
05:50So those clearly showed that these kinds of increases in earnings were actually due to..
05:52Pricing, and that can't continue forever
05:54However, everyone's focused on the small little detail, but we got a lot of evidence yesterday that the memory shortage is actually going to become tighter before it gets better
06:06Management is telling us that 2027, 2028, will be more constrained than 2026
06:09More than 75% of next year's output is already committed
06:13Customers are talking beyond 2030
06:17And most of the new clean room capacity Micron is investing in today, as you just mentioned, doesn't provide meaningful production until late 2028
06:21So if the market is valuing Micron at six times earnings, assuming this year's peak demand, then they're flat out saying the management is lying
06:29And I really don't..
06:31Believe that's the case
06:33>> So you've given us a stock a lot
06:35In fact, back in January, you're up 120% on that
06:38The top target I saw today was, uh, we got Melas now at 2,200
06:42Where do you see the stock possibly going from here? >> I think it's going to be a $1,500 stock
06:46Uh, you might even say I brought you in as the bullish caller
06:54You sound a little weak there, my man
07:01We have $1,500 in a matter of months, but I think long term, I think you're seeing the rate of price increases slowing down, but you're also seeing how demand is just exceeding all expectations, and you're going to continue seeing Micron's revenue grow quarter after quarter
07:08Then eventually, the bearish argument is going to kind of fade out in the market
07:14Background, and you're going to see, Micron essentially growing their earnings by 40 to 50% for years, and all of a sudden it's going to get that rerating towards 8 to 10 times
07:24So I do believe, like I saw 2,200
07:26If you give me a one-year target, like why not 2,500? This deserves it
07:29 >> There you go
07:31That's a share I fell in love with
07:33Okay, so Micron, you've given us twice this year
07:35I think the last time you were here was around 700 bucks, and January is even lower than that
07:38You're up over 100%, but it's still trading at a 6.5 times PE ratio
07:42 What are you telling people who say, "Should I buy now?" >> You know, it's interesting
07:45Your last guest, I think, nailed it
07:47You know, because it's six and a half times
07:50It is trading as if this is peak
07:52Earnings
07:53And I think there is a structurally real demand change here
07:55I mean, he pointed out capacity will not be on line until before the end of 2027
07:59Also, all the contracts they're talking about are long-term, three to five years out
08:03In 2030, fully 35% of their contracts are locked in
08:05That is visible high revenue
08:07Plus, just a little bonus here— in December, there will be some government restrictions, and they'll be able to buy back some stock
08:15So, that announcement is coming
08:18But I think the demand is huge
08:20There are structural issues in terms of being able to bring up capacity, so I think he's right
08:25>> We have less than a minute to go
08:27Now, you did mention in your note that semiconductors remain your highest
08:30Conviction, right? And I know you love the semis, made a ton of money in them
08:34One thing I'm seeing with a lot of these charts is they keep— they haven't broken out
08:39You know, whether it's this one, Meta, Micron, Nvidia, they haven't broken out
08:41What is it? Do you get to a point where if they can't break out, they give up? Here's the thing
08:50At this current moment in time, I think they're a coiled spring
08:53I see this, yes, into some resistance
08:56We can draw that line, but you've got a nice four-month base of support
08:59And again, sentiment and positioning are still off sides at the hands of that costly July unwind of semis and momentum
09:02And Charles, we're going into the best two months of the year for semiconductors, which are..
09:06October and November
09:09So, to me, I see a four-month base breakout in the base here and the next move up
09:13You'd think this line would be irrelevant going into the best time of year for semiconductors and markets more broadly, with sentiment and positioning off sides
09:19That's a place I want to be
09:21But specifically about, uh, Micron
09:23Micron, not well, it turned around actually
09:25This is pretty interesting
09:26It had such a blockbuster earnings report after the bell yesterday
09:30Unbelievable moves here, and yet the stock initially was down due to a slightly light report on the margin outlook
09:36So, are you that worried when you see that kind of margin outlook? Yeah, just take it one step further and say, what's Micron's multiple? Micron is trading at a multiple that's below the multiple for the S&P 500, which is, you know, trading at a 19 multiple
09:53While it's up, you know, it's a three-bagger so far this year on a year-to-date basis, they are actually producing the revenues and earnings to drive that
10:00So, if there was any disappointment in the conference call, it was because they paid their employees, and that took a ding out of their margins a bit
10:07But their outlook, the contracts they have, and just the need for the kind of compute power they're providing—simple DRAM and the CPU business in the data storage world—we've just flipped that on its head
10:15We just can't produce enough, and clearly, the demand is there
10:18Outstripping supply
10:20I think Micron's a winner here
10:23>> Yeah
10:26Can you believe today alone it's had a $92 swing from trough to peak? >> It's crazy
10:30>> Not for the faint of heart, right? >> So give me a sense overall about Micron because I don't want to ignore that
10:36Micron came out with unbelievable numbers, and the big question is how much better can it get from here
10:42So we saw it stumble a little bit in the beginning of the session
10:44It has turned around
10:47It is now up 30 points to 95
10:49How much better does it get, Brian? >> Yeah, we think that it can continue to get better
10:53Um, you know, the AI infrastructure trade broadly has not had a great quarter here in the third quarter
11:02I think part of that is higher
11:04Interest rates
11:06Part of that is, um, some uncertainty around the election
11:08But why, why we like Micron and specifically infrastructure broadly, and Micron, I think, is evidence of this
11:14Essentially, you know, historically, they produce memory, which has been a commodity, but they are increasingly signing take-or-pay or long-term contracts with their strategic customers, which to us indicates that you're taking something that was a commodity and it's becoming so much more valuable that it's going to be more infrastructure-like
11:33So, these high levels of cash flow that they're earning this year are going to be extended, not only this year and next, but even beyond that
11:40>> I've been thinking, too many people let..
11:43The action in a stock can tell investors the story even if it's the wrong story
11:47Last night, Micron, one of the largest semiconductor companies in the world, reported a phenomenal quarter
11:51We were honored to see the results, and it was much, much better than what we were expecting
11:59Jeff Marks wrote a terrific note last night for investing club members detailing the results
12:03But what happened? THE STOCK GOT HAMMERED IMMEDIATELY
12:04That was wrong
12:06Let me break down the basics
12:07Micron did $54.23 billion in revenue, whereas Wall Street expected just a little more than $51 billion
12:14They earned $33.42 per share, up 1.02% year-over-year
12:16Analysts were expecting just $31.61
12:1831
12:22That’s a huge beat
12:26The demand for high-bandwidth memory chips, the… One that belongs in the data center is insane
12:29These chips are in such short supply that customers have been trying to sign strategic consumer agreements with Micron that would last the next few years, lest they be shut out of the incredibly important components if the shortage continues
12:41They can't afford to be without high-bandwidth memory
12:44It's an amazing statement for a company that used to live or die by the day-to-day vicissitudes of DRAM pricing
12:50Now they can lock customers up for years because their best chips are so scarce
12:56Cyclical to secular, my favorite kind of redo
12:58So if everything's terrific, why in the world did Micron stock go down last night, then open down today, and stay down for an hour? A lot of..
13:10People saw that action and assumed that there was got to be a problem with the quarter, even if there wasn't
13:14The truth is, the sellers didn't know what they were doing
13:16Ostensibly, Micron trades on gross margins
13:17If the gross bars show any degradation, it's usually because there's too much competition and pricing is about to collapse
13:23But this time, the degradation came from a decision made by CEO Sanjay Mehrotra to compensate his team a little bit higher than people expected
13:30I thought it was a sound gesture
13:32I saw it with my own eyes
13:34We went out to Micron's headquarters in Boise in August, to the site of a huge new fab to make chips
13:41And some of the workers told me they were going six days a week, long days
13:45While they were genuinely cheerful about it, they definitely deserve the bonus
13:48Still, the playbook says that what you sell Micron, most margins spook followers—bold
13:51Second issue, the buyback
13:54Micron's earnings were huge, and the price-earnings multiple is shrinking
13:56When that happens, a company can either say, "Darn it, I wish it were higher," or it can take its cash and put it to work buying its cheapest asset, the shares in the company itself
14:08Because Micron took chips money from the federal government, it has to wait until December 9 before it can buy back stock hand over fist
14:14Can't front-run that
14:16I was one of several people who begged for details on the potential size of the buyback when I interviewed Sanjay this very day
14:22Morning on Squawk on the Street, but I had no luck
14:26I think Micron, like Apple and NVIDIA, knows that it owns its own stock and isn't getting its due because people are so worried about a data center slowdown
14:31Me, I know that when I was out there in August, Micron had 16 long-term contracts to provide DRAM
14:36Now it has 26
14:40Every time there's a new contract, the company becomes less cyclical and more secular, given its newfound consistency
14:45It's nuts that the stock still sells for six times next year's earnings estimates
14:47Weird
14:49So, I like a huge buyback here
14:51It could help Micron shareholders tremendously
14:54But that's not why I stood there at our 10:20 morning meeting with club members
14:57Now, buy it
15:00Buy this dip
15:03I did it because..
15:05The story, as great as it was when we visited in August, had gotten even better, maybe much better just a few weeks later, as customers know they'd better lock up chips as soon as possible or else
15:15The end of Micron's relentless boom and bust cycle has arrived at last
15:20That means the stock can still be bought, but maybe more importantly, it can't afford to be sold
15:26If you want to short this thing, knowing that Micron will be able to buy back its own stock aggressively come December, I think you're digging your own grave
15:34Why don't I send you an invitation to your funeral? >> All right, all right, I hope you're all doing well today and staying calm in this market
15:43Thursday was overall a positive day throughout much of the market, as we..
15:46We saw yields move lower intraday
15:47We also received some Fed commentary implying that there is no urgency to raise rates
15:50On Thursday, Reuters reported that some banks and credit investors are questioning how much long-term collateral value Nvidia GPUs will retain, and that some lenders want Nvidia to provide stronger guarantees than what Nvidia originally contemplated
15:59This is related to the $500 billion in independent third-party capital that Jensen Huang announced alongside six of Wall Street's top financiers back in August
16:08According to Reuters, three unnamed banking sources who were not part of the original financing group said Nvidia may need to offer guarantees on all of its deals, or they may have to be backed by..
16:19A revenue stream from investment-grade customers to cover the debt
16:20One source told Reuters that tens of billions of dollars of loan deals in the pipeline are likely to have strong guarantees and contracts
16:26These deals are secured by Nvidia's chips and backed by both customer contracts and Nvidia's underlying guarantees
16:30Another source told Reuters that some structures being explored would potentially give lenders guarantees
16:34Despite the concerns, Reuters sources said that there's high demand to finance the deals
16:40One source said that there isn't enough historical data for lenders to confidently underwrite long-term residual value based on GPUs
16:45An S&P Global Ratings director told Reuters, quote, Nvidia would imply that the GPUs work well for north of five years, and that actually has been proven to be true so far
16:55He added by saying, quote, "We take a conservative view of the value of those chips." Another source told Reuters, quote, "Banks typically underwrite GPUs over a three- to four-year depreciation schedule
17:03That is different than Nvidia, which argues top-tier GPUs can earn revenue for a decade." So, put simply, some banks and credit investors are questioning the useful life and depreciation schedules for Nvidia GPUs
17:13Nvidia published a blog post on Thursday addressing these very concerns, saying that Nvidia AI factories are productive, durable, and fungible
17:20In that blog post, Nvidia mentions that..
17:22Three key factors shape AI factory returns
17:24First, there's earning capacity, which is what the factory could earn in a year if it sold every token it can produce
17:31Second, there's useful life, which is how long the factory's AI hardware continues to earn
17:35And third, there's the demand for the tokens that the AI factory produces
17:38For AI factories to generate favorable returns, there must be strength in all three areas
17:41They are not independent of each other
17:42Nvidia's AI factories are engineered to maximize all three
17:46They deliver the highest throughput per megawatt and the lowest cost per token, which maximizes their earning capacity
17:51They're also durable, with long useful lives
17:53Nvidia's GPUs and Systems keep earning years after they ship, and they're fungible
17:57Nvidia's platform is flexible, constantly adapting as software changes, and their AI factories run every type of AI across every phase of the AI lifecycle and in every cloud
18:05Nvidia's platform can run any workload in any cloud, and Nvidia has the largest install base globally
18:11All of that deepens and broadens the demand they can serve
18:15Since Nvidia's platform is fungible, if a customer isn't able to pay for compute capacity for some reason, then that capacity can simply be resold to another customer who can step in and put that capacity to use
18:25That's a major benefit of having a flexible platform that can run any workload
18:28Nvidia also mentioned that
18:31Core Weave recently contracted a 100% capacity out of 2029
18:32Nvidia's a 100% launch in 2020
18:34And I would also add that Oracle said on their recent earnings call that they renewed or resold capacity at a 20% premium to prior contracts, and most of those GPUs were four years or older
18:45In the blog post, Nvidia mentions that over the years, every major operator has extended the depreciation schedule on its servers
18:52As I said repeatedly during the Michael Bur drama of late 2025, the hyperscalers are not extending the useful life of GPUs in order to artificially boost earnings, as the bears incorrectly pontificated
19:00Rather, these companies simply came to the realization that the hardware would be useful for longer than..
19:04What they originally anticipated
19:06This is due to a few factors
19:10First, the world is compute-constrained, and developers want the lowest cost per token possible
19:13Second, NVIDIA constantly improves older generation hardware through software optimizations, which extends its useful life
19:16And third, there are multiple use cases for the hardware, which lines up with what NVIDIA is saying about fungibility
19:24So, all of that essentially lines up with what NVIDIA is saying in their Thursday blog post
19:27NVIDIA also shared a slide in their investor presentation earlier this week illustrating that NVIDIA's AI infrastructure retains value beyond accelerated depreciation schedules
19:33Remember that many of the Well-known bears were arguing that these GPUs should be depreciated over three years
19:38As I have said numerous times, these GPUs do not simply turn to dust after three years
19:44The vast majority of them still work after three years, and there are multiple use cases for the hardware
19:51In other words, they keep earning money beyond three years
19:53 As it relates to NVIDIA's GPUs being used as collateral, some bankers and credit investors are cautious because they do not yet think that there is enough evidence to prove the depreciation claims that NVIDIA has made
19:57That's fine
20:01More data will become available as time goes on
20:05 At the same time, it's worth considering that there does not yet appear to be credible evidence that would disprove..
20:09Nvidia's depreciation claims either
20:11In fact, the actual evidence that we do have today appears to be supportive of the claim that Nvidia GPUs will remain useful for much longer than the skeptics originally thought
20:17And in the future, with disaggregated inference, I would not be surprised if we see GPUs that have a useful life beyond 10 years
20:25I know that might sound crazy, but that's the reality of what we're looking at
20:28With disaggregated inference, you can essentially mix and match different accelerators with the older GPUs and optimize for various workloads, making those GPUs useful for longer
20:34That goes to what I was saying before about Nvidia's platform being flexible and the fact that there are multiple uses
20:41Cases for the hardware
20:43These GPUs do not depreciate in the same way that a car depreciates the second you drive it off the lot
20:45We're not a car
20:47We are not a car
20:49Now, let's cover some more news
20:51Amazon announced that it is raising reserved GPU pricing by 15% starting on October 7th
20:54You may remember that they raised prices by about 20% back in July
20:57And now, we have another 15% price increase
21:00P4D is NVIDIA's A100, which launched in 2020
21:03Yes, AWS is about to raise pricing for a 6-year-old GPU by another 15%, and they made that decision based on supply and demand
21:09In other words, the demand is very strong and far outpaces the available supply
21:14That also bodes well for the other hyperscalers, cloud providers, and NVIDIA
21:19As a reminder, All three of the major CSPs posted accelerating cloud revenue growth and expanding cloud operating margins on their most recent earnings reports
21:24In other news, the Financial Times published a report stating that Tencent has signed a five-year lease with Oracle worth about $7 billion to access approximately 100,000 advanced AI chips that are not permitted in China
21:35These are most likely advanced NVIDIA GPUs
21:37The chips are housed in Oracle data centers across Southeast Asia
21:41Now, I will say that the Financial Times has a good track record of accurately reporting on NVIDIA China rumors
21:46It's important to understand that while there are export controls on the sale of NVIDIA's leading-edge accelerators to China, Chinese companies are still..
21:52Allowed to access Nvidia GPUs in clouds outside of China
21:56About half of the world's AI developers live in China
21:57The platforms developers build on are the platforms that will ultimately succeed, and it's in the United States' strategic best interest that those developers continue building on the American tech stack
22:08The alternative scenario would be that China accelerates the development of its own domestic tech stack and then proceeds to export that tech stack around the globe, taking market share away from American companies in future years
22:18Again, it's in the United States' strategic best interest that developers in China continue building on the American tech stack
22:23In other news, we got export data for
22:25The month of September, according to South Korea's Ministry of Trade, showed semiconductor exports up 263% year-over-year and about 29% month-over-month
22:32Contract prices also appear to be maintaining their upward trend, showing modest increases month-over-month
22:35Put simply, memory demand continued to increase, export volumes expanded, and contract prices continued rising
22:42That drove semiconductor exports above $60 billion for the first time
22:45It's important to note that this increase was not solely due to greater volumes but also due to increases in memory prices
22:53Now, in case you missed Wednesday night's video, I'm once again going to cover Micron earnings because we learned a lot of important details
23:00And I want to make sure we're all on the same page moving forward
23:03Let's start with the highlights, and then I'll cover the earnings call after that
23:06Micron reported Q4 revenue of $54.23 billion versus $51.4 billion expected
23:08Adjusted EPS was $33.42 versus $31.72 expected, and non-GAAP gross margin was 87% versus roughly 86.2% expected
23:12As for next quarter guidance, Micron guided revenue at $61.5 billion versus $57.4 billion expected
23:20Adjusted EPS at $38.15 versus $35.47 expected, and non-GAAP gross margin at 86.25% versus roughly 87.5% expected
23:31Also, Micron's capex during the quarter was $10.77 billion, and they guided next quarter capex at $11.5 billion
23:40Now, let's cover the earnings call
23:42I'm just going to..
23:44Rapid-fire important points that stood out to me: Micron expects memory supply to be much tighter in fiscal 2027 and fiscal 2028 than in 2026
23:55Micron has signed a total of 26 supply and equipment agreements, which is up from the 16 agreements Micron announced on its last earnings call
24:01Micron expects these agreements to cover over 35% of revenue through 2030
24:04Three-fourths of the estimated revenue has a defined pricing framework, a majority of which have pricing bands with floor and ceiling prices
24:10The remaining quarter has pricing negotiated periodically based on market prices
24:15Micron said they now have some supply chain agreements that extend into 2031
24:19Micron CEO said physical AI can become a significant driver of memory demand by the end of this decade
24:23As for the future outlook, Micron..
24:28Expectations are that memory and storage supply-demand conditions will be much tighter in calendar years 2027 and 2028 than in 2026
24:33Micron anticipates industry NAND bit shipments to grow in the low 20% range in calendar 2026
24:36Micron expects its own NAND supply to grow at a slower rate than the industry in calendar 2026
24:43Regarding DRAM, Micron expects industry bit shipments to grow in the mid-20% range in calendar 2026
24:48Micron projects its own DRAM bit shipments to grow in line with the industry
24:53For calendar years 2027 and 2028, Micron expects industry bit shipments to grow in the low 20% range, and expects industry HBM (High Bandwidth Memory) bit shipments to grow faster than conventional DRAM through 2028
25:05Given the strong demand trends they are observing, Micron does not have..
25:08A line of sight to when supply and demand will return to balance
25:11Micron announced that their RPO is approximately $150 billion
25:14That backlog number only includes SCAs with determined pricing frameworks, and it's calculated using committed volumes and minimum pricing
25:18Micron says that the $150 billion RPO is inherently conservative, and they expect actual revenue to well exceed the associated RPO
25:26All of Micron's SCAs have take-or-pay volumes
25:29This next point is important for investors: Micron expects to increase capital returns from December 9th and plans to return 100% of excess cash to shareholders over time
25:40Micron expects fiscal 2027 to be another record year, with sequential revenue growth each quarter
25:45Quarter
25:49Micron expects fiscal Q1, the current quarter, to be the floor for gross margins in fiscal 2027, and they anticipate higher gross margins beyond fiscal Q1 with more moderate memory price increases
25:54Micron expects capital expenditures (capex) in fiscal Q1 to be $1.5 billion and to reach $25 billion in the first half of fiscal 2027
26:02Micron expects capex to be higher in the second half of fiscal 2027
26:06Micron believes that free cash flow strength is more durable, stating that we will see free cash flow significantly higher than what was reported in fiscal Q4
26:13This is important since Micron said they plan to return 100% of excess cash to shareholders
26:18Micron CEO said they expect memory supply to be tighter in calendar 2028 than in 2026, even as new..
26:23Clean room capacity ramps
26:25That is a very important detail as it relates to memory makers' pricing power for 2027
26:30More than 75% of Micron's output is already committed, including both enterprise and non-enterprise customers
26:34Micron is also already having conversations with customers about 2028
26:38Micron leadership was also asked about Nvidia potentially despecking products due to the shortage and higher prices
26:44Nvidia was not mentioned by name, but it was abundantly clear that both the analyst asking the question and Micron leadership were referring to Nvidia, given the recent rumors about Nvidia potentially despecking the HBM Ultra
26:56Micron CEO made the point that HBM is growing faster than conventional DRAM
26:59Also pointed out that customers reducing memory content growth is done to allow them to ship more units
27:04That lines up with what I've been saying in recent months about the Nvidia Rumor Ultra DSpacing rumors
27:10Micron CEO also pointed out that AI platforms need more and faster memory due to growing context concurrency and larger model sizes
27:15In other words, AI platforms like Invidious need more and faster memory to deliver maximum capabilities and potential
27:21Overall, I would say that these were very strong results
27:25The only slight quibble would be that next quarter gross margin guidance was lower than expected and sequentially lower than the reported Q4 gross margin
27:33But there's a very specific reason for it
27:35That
27:38On the earnings call, Micron CFO clarified that in Q4, Micron increased fiscal 2026 compensation for every global team member
27:41Most of the manufacturing-related portion of that compensation was capitalized into inventory in Q4 rather than immediately hitting Q4 gross margin when that higher-cost inventory is sold in Q1
27:50The cost flows through COGS and reduces Q1 gross margin
27:53Micron CFO specifically said that incentive compensation was the big driver of the Q1 gross margin outlook
27:57So, this is not a case of gross margins peaking
28:00Not at all
28:02It's just a cost timing effect from compensation
28:05In fact, Micron leadership indicated that they expect Q1 to be the floor for gross margin in fiscal 2027, with Margins are increasing afterward
28:11So again, these were overall solid results
28:12It's also helpful to hear leadership say that memory and storage supply-demand conditions will be tighter in calendar 2028 than in 2026
28:19Last quarter, they indicated that they expected supply to remain tight beyond calendar 2027
28:23And now they're saying they expect the tightness to be greater in calendar 2028 than it is today
28:28It's also notable that Micron CEO expects the tightness to persist even as new cleanroom capacity ramps up in 2028
28:36That is a notable detail, and it bodes well for the duration of memory makers' pricing power
28:40Look, I don't know what the stock will do in the short term, but I would say that this earnings report and earnings guidance are promising
28:48Call reinforces that the thesis is intact
28:50In the short term, we do need to keep an eye on the Micron Taiwan labor union situation because one of the unions is scheduled to hold a strike authorization vote from October 1st through October 3rd, and then voting is scheduled at a second location from October 4th through October 6th
28:58So, we may get the results of that vote sometime around October 6th or 7th
29:02In order for a strike to be authorized, more than half of the union membership must vote in favor of it
29:08Taiwan is Micron's main manufacturing hub, so we do need to pay attention to this just in case
29:12If a strike is declared, that would most likely have a negative impact on the stock
29:16That said, I do think the situation will The hosts of CNBC and Fox Business discuss NVIDIA, NVIDIA stock (NVDA), Micron, and Micron stock (MU) after Micron earnings
29:22On Thursday, Reuters published a story saying that some banks and credit investors will eventually resolve their concerns
29:25Also, recent reports have indicated that Micron will announce more details about employee compensation sometime in October
29:28Looking ahead, we will likely get Samsung's preliminary earnings guidance sometime in early October, and Jensen Huang is scheduled to deliver a GTC keynote at GTC Berlin on October 21st
29:31Now, in case you're new to the channel, I want to make sure that you have at least a basic understanding of the underlying long-term thesis
29:37So, let's cover that
29:43Now, I don't know what's going to happen in the short term, but from a long-term perspective, I am very confident that NVIDIA will be worth much more in future years than it is today
29:48When Jensen was on Lex Fridman
29:49Podcast: not that long ago, he was very seriously raising the possibility of Nvidia becoming a $3 trillion revenue company in the near future
29:54If that happens in the coming years, then it is very plausible that Nvidia could one day be worth tens of trillions of dollars in market capitalization
30:02That might sound crazy, but that's what Jensen Huang is implying when he raises the possibility of Nvidia becoming a $3 trillion revenue company
30:09I guess the question at that point is what multiple the street will be willing to give Nvidia
30:12I don't know the answer to that question, but I truly do think that Nvidia will be worth much more in future years than it is today, based purely on the fundamental growth of the business
30:20Based on everything I'm..
30:21Seeing, the world is still compute-constrained, and I expect that to continue at least through calendar 2028
30:24In a computed environment, developers will use whatever viable compute they can get their hands on
30:29Today, there are no GPUs that are sitting idle due to a lack of demand, like there was fiber sitting idle due to a lack of demand at the height of the dot-com bubble
30:38Back then, companies were laying fiber in the hopes that use cases and demand would eventually show up
30:43Today, we are seeing the complete opposite
30:45As I've said many times, when market participants compare this AI revolution to the dot-com bubble, they ignore the fact that the internet is already here this time
30:51This means that mass adoption of the..
30:52Technology and new use case development at scale are immediately possible
30:56We don't have to wait years for it to show up; it's already here
30:59The world is compute-constrained, which means there is not enough supply to satisfy demand
31:03New capacity is utilized as soon as it comes online
31:05The hyperscalers are monetizing capacity as soon as it becomes available
31:08Each of the hyperscalers spoke about being supply-constrained on their most recent earnings calls
31:11Additionally, many of the cloud providers are building out infrastructure to meet contracted demand
31:15They're not blindly expanding in the hopes that demand will eventually materialize
31:19No, they're building because they have signed contracts and, in some cases, significant prepayments from customers
31:24Their paying customers
31:30This AI revolution is fundamentally different from the dot-com bubble, and 2026 will be a pivotal year for the AI industry thanks to the rapid adoption of Agentic AI and the proliferation of Agentic systems in the world's leading enterprises
31:36The leading AI labs' revenues are surging right now
31:37Agentic coding and the implementation of Agentic systems in large enterprises are new use cases that are increasing inference demand significantly, which in turn is increasing compute demand
31:46The rapid adoption of Agentic AI is why we're seeing an inflection in inference demand
31:50It's also why we're seeing the revenues of leading AI labs surge
31:56I wish both Anthropic and OpenAI were public, so the..
31:58Public could see the ramp in their revenues
32:01I think the leading labs surging revenues may be the initial proof point that grabs market participants' attention and causes them to realize that there will be a clear ROI on AI infrastructure
32:08I think the leading labs' surging revenues will also help assure investors of the longevity of Nvidia's growth since these labs' revenues are directly tied to compute
32:17If they had more compute, they would have greater revenues
32:19It really is that simple
32:21Demand is not the problem
32:22The problem is a lack of supply to meet the demand
32:26As I've said previously, I expect the world to be compute-constrained at least through calendar 2028, possibly longer
32:29And so, regardless of what happens
32:31In the short term, it's important for long-term investors to remain focused on the fundamentals, maintain a long-term perspective, and remember that we are only in the early stages of artificial systems being adopted at scale
32:41This will increase compute demand significantly
32:42And after that, the next surge in compute demand will likely be fueled by physical AI
32:47We're no longer talking about digital agents performing digital tasks
32:49With physical AI, we're talking about physical AI agents performing physical tasks in the real world
32:54Nvidia CFO has called physical AI a multi-trillion-dollar opportunity and the next leg of growth for Nvidia
32:59This industry will fundamentally transform society and Nvidia
33:01The hosts of CNBC and Fox Business discuss NVIDIA, NVIDIA stock (NVDA), Micron, and Micron stock (MU) after Micron earnings
33:08On Thursday, Reuters published a story saying that some banks and credit investors have positioned themselves to benefit massively
33:12NVIDIA sells the hardware for data centers where the models are trained
33:16They offer Omniverse, where the models are taught and tested, and NVIDIA also sells hardware that allows on-device real-time inference through NVIDIA AGX, enabling robots to have intelligent interactions with the real world even when they are not connected to a data center
33:20Notice that NVIDIA is taking a holistic platform approach to physical AI, embedding itself as the underlying foundation supporting all of it
33:27Over three million developers are already building on the NVIDIA robotics stack, and this is not getting enough attention
33:32As for production ramps, Blackwell Ultra has ramped up and remains in high demand
33:37Vera Rubin is rolling out to customers
33:39Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 Series LPX is in full production
33:43Later on, we're expecting the launch of Reuben Ultra in 2027 and Fineman after that in 2028
33:46We have a clear data center product roadmap stretching into 2028, and Jensen believes that AI infrastructure spending will reach 3 to 4 trillion dollars annually by the end of the decade
33:54That means Jensen is expecting growing AI demand and an expanding total addressable market underpinning all of this
34:00I don't think we are anywhere near any kind of bubble bursting event
34:04With all of this in mind, I seriously think that Nvidia still has plenty of runway ahead of it, and I think this company will be… Worth substantially more in future years than it is today
34:12At least that's my view of the situation
34:16A quick note before I wrap up: all of the compilations on this channel are edited by Finn Vid, with original structure and commentary
34:21Occasionally, the same edits appear elsewhere on YouTube
34:22If you're looking for the original version, it's always here on this channel
34:25Thanks for watching, Finn Vid
34:27I appreciate your support
34:28Remember to stay calm in this market, maintain a long-term perspective, and do not make any hasty or irrational decisions
34:32With all of that being said, I hope you all have a great rest of the day, and I'm curious to hear your thoughts about NVIDIA in the comments below
34:36Please leave a..
34:40Like on this video so more people will see it
34:44And while you're down there, please consider subscribing
34:44It's free, and you can always change your mind.