Good for ↑
Micron's core data center sales hit $18.00B, up 1,041% from a year earlier. It expects total sales of $61.5B in its next fiscal quarter. Growth that steep needs more chipmaking equipment. Lam Research makes the tools that etch and layer Micron's memory chips, so Lam's orders could rise.
Reported by Micron Technology, Inc.
+5.0%EPS surprise
EPS $33.42 actual vs $31.82 estimate
Reported Sep 30, 2026
This is the company that reported. The stocks below are other companies its numbers affect.
Micron's own share price moved within seconds of its results. The bigger news for other companies sits in one unit. Core data center sales reached $18.00B, against $1.58B a year earlier, a rise of 1041.5%. Micron expects total sales of $61.5B next quarter, give or take $1.5B. That is well above what it just reported. Output on that scale does not appear without new wafer fabrication equipment, the machines that make chips. Lam Research (LRCX) is a major supplier of etch and deposition tools to Micron, which carve and layer memory chips. Micron is one of Lam's largest customers, and chipmakers order these tools 6-12 months ahead of production. Lam has not yet reported results for this period. Analysts who follow Lam may take days to work through Micron's figures. Lam's next earnings report is the likely test.
Investors value Lam Research (LRCX) on a slow recovery in chip equipment spending. Analysts expect a moderate rise in its systems sales from one quarter to the next. They read Micron's results as a story about memory demand, not as a sign that Micron needs more equipment.
Why that may be wrong
News about one company travels slowly to the analysts of another. Brokerage analysts who cover Lam Research (LRCX) estimate Micron's equipment spending from its investment plans and supplier checks. They rarely work from unit-level sales in a same-night earnings release. Micron's data center figure and the doubling of its SOCAMM server memory sales say a lot about Lam's orders. But they came out under Micron's name at 4pm on September 30. Lam's analysts will not update their models until they work through the release, and forecasts will lag by days.
Watch the systems sales figure in the next earnings report from Lam Research (LRCX), expected in late October 2026. A figure below $4.5B would suggest Micron is meeting its growth with tools it already owns, not new orders. That would show the link does not hold.
Micron may simply run its existing Lam Research (LRCX) tools harder instead of buying new ones. Then its sales growth would not turn into new equipment orders. Micron's spending plans, not given in this release, could show flat or lower equipment spending even as output rises, if better production yields drive the volume. That is the weakest step, the idea that more output needs more tools. Micron's 10-K annual report, due after this release, would settle it. If Micron's equipment spending there is flat or down, the case for higher Lam orders fails, whatever the data center sales.
Past jumps at Micron have not always lifted Lam Research (LRCX) shares before Lam's own results. In December 2024, Micron reported a similar jump in its data center sales. In the weeks before Lam's next results, Lam's shares did only about as well as the main chip stock index (SOX). Investors may again take time to work out what Micron's growth means for equipment orders.
Micron's core data center unit reported sales of $18.00B, against $1.58B a year earlier, up 1041.5%. Micron expects revenue of $61.5B, give or take $1.5B, in the first quarter of fiscal 2027. That is well above what it just reported. Sales of its low-power SOCAMM server memory also more than doubled from the previous quarter in Q4 2026.
Lam Research (LRCX) supplies the etch and deposition tools Micron needs to make more DRAM and high-bandwidth memory. A jump this large in Micron's data center sales requires more chipmaking equipment. Those orders land in Lam's systems sales, usually 6-12 months before the extra output arrives.
Analyst forecasts for systems sales at Lam Research (LRCX) in its current quarter do not yet reflect what Micron's growth means for Lam's orders. The figures came out under Micron's name after the market closed on September 30. Lam's analysts will take days to catch up before raising their forecasts.
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