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Luke Kawa12/24/25

Micron jumps amid report of memory chip price hikes

Shares of Micron are catching a bid on Wednesday after South Korean media reported that its biggest competitors are raising selling prices for a line of high-bandwidth memory chips, even though these will soon no longer be the most cutting-edge offerings available.

“According to industry sources on the 24th, memory semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have reportedly raised HBM3E supply prices by nearly 20%,” per the report from Chosun Biz. “This is unusual, considering that prices typically drop ahead of next-generation HBM launches. The prevailing view is that this is due to upward adjustments in HBM3E orders for next year from companies like Google and Amazon, which design their own AI accelerators, as well as NVIDIA, the largest HBM3E customer.”

Micron and those two companies make up the triumvirate of high-bandwidth memory chip suppliers. These companies are all moving toward ramping their next-gen HBM4 production next year.

Meanwhile, appetite for HBM3E is being reinforced in part by President Trump’s move to allow Nvidia to sell its H200 chips to China.

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Cisco surges on Q3 earnings beat and better-than-expected Q4 outlook

Cisco rose double digits after beating Q3 revenue and earnings estimates and giving optimistic projections due to increasing demand from the AI industry.

Shares were 13% higher in after-hours trading.

The tech company reported:

Q3 revenue of $15.8 billion (compared to analyst estimates of $15.5 billion)
Q3 Adjusted earnings per share of $1.06 (estimate: $1.04)
Q4 revenue guidance between $16.7 billion and $16.9 billion (estimate: $15.8 billion)
Q4 adjusted earnings guidance of $1.16 to $1.18 (estimate: $1.07)

Shares in the company have climbed more than 60% over the past calendar year and traded at historic record highs this week — surpassing $100 on Wednesday afternoon — fully riding the AI infrastructure wave. Growing data centers and hyperscalers need networking and telecommunications equipment from companies like Broadcom or Marvell Technology and infrastructure players like Cisco or Applied Optoelectronics.

Chuck Robbins, chair and CEO of Cisco, said:

"Cisco is well-positioned as the critical infrastructure for the AI era, building on our technology leadership and customer trust, while innovating at the speed and scale that our dynamic world demands."

While demand for Cisco’s products has been climbing, the price of memory also remains elevated — which can create a tension between booming sales and shrinking profit. For Q3, Cisco reported non-GAAP gross margins of 66%, about on par with Wall Street’s estimates of 66.1% but down from 68.6% a year earlier.

Looking toward the full year, the company updated its full-year outlook to expect revenue ranging between $62.8 billion to $63.0 billion, ahead of analysts’ estimates of $61.1 billion.

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Ford surges on bullish options activity, Morgan Stanley praises its battery business

Ford is on pace for its best trading day in seven months as bullish options activity propels the stock.

More than 226,000 call options have changed hands as of 11:25 a.m. ET on Wednesday, roughly 4x the 20-day average for a full session.

A Tuesday evening note from Morgan Stanley highlighted the company’s new energy business, Ford Energy, which will sell US-assembled battery systems to “utilities, data centers and large industrial and commercial customers in the United States.”

“We believe that there is a fairly high likelihood that Ford signs an [energy storage system] supply agreement with large commercial customers, and potentially hyperscalers, over the next few months,” said Morgan Stanley analyst Andrew Percoco. The firm estimates that Ford Energy, which is licensing tech from Chinese battery giant CATL, could generate between $500 million and $600 million of run-rate earnings before interest and taxes at 20 gigawatt-hours of production.

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Tower Semiconductor soars on solid sales guidance with $1.3 billion in silicon photonics sales contracts

Tower Semiconductor is surging in early trading after the company released solid Q1 results and announced $1.3 billion in silicon photonics contract wins for 2027.

Q1 revenues of $413.6 million came in slightly better than Wall Street’s call, with adjusted diluted earnings per share of $0.65 well ahead of the $0.56 estimate.

Looking forward, the company projects Q2 2026 revenue to reach an all-time record of $455 million (plus or minus 5%), above analysts’ expectations for $436.6 million.

Tower Semiconductor is benefiting from a surge in demand for AI infrastructure and is committed to its multiyear growth target in its silicon photonics business. Tower has already received $290 million in customer cash prepayments to reserve this capacity. Management said it has “an even larger contractual wafer commitment for 2028 for which additional associated prepayments are due by January 2027.”

“We are confident in our path toward achieving our model targets of $2.8 billion in annual revenue and $750 million in net profit in 2028,” said Russell Ellwanger, CEO of Tower Semiconductor.

Shares of Tower Semiconductor are up more than 80% year to date.

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