Micron's shares were last up 18% at $886.6 - a record high.

May 26 (Reuters) - Micron Technology topped $1 trillion ⁠in market value for the first time on Tuesday, crowning a dizzying rally that has ⁠cemented the largest U.S. memory chipmaker as one of the standout winners of the ‌AI boom. Micron's shares were last up 18% at $886.6 - a record high - with Tuesday's boost coming after brokerage UBS increased its price target on the stock to $1,625 from $535, which is the highest among the 46 brokerages covering the company, according to LSEG data. The milestone, which underscores memory chips' central role in AI infrastructure, also ⁠reflects a broader shift in the ⁠AI trade as investors seek out companies that can benefit from Big Tech's massive spending plans after ⁠initially ‌crowding into makers of graphics processors. South Korea's Samsung Electronics, the world's top memory chipmaker, has already hit the $1 trillion milestone, while SK Hynix is also closing in. While Nvidia makes the powerful ⁠processors used to train and run AI models, Micron mainly produces memory chips used to store ‌and move data. The company's ascent gives the U.S. a strong contender in a memory-chip race ⁠that has largely been led by Asia so far. Shares of Micron, long viewed as one of the semiconductor industry's most cyclical names, have jumped more than eightfold in the last 12 months, thanks to strong earnings and supply chain constraints that have ⁠given it pricing power. With technology companies racing toward artificial general intelligence, customers are committing to longer-term data center investments that have fueled a sharp rise in demand for advanced memory and storage, creating a supply crunch and driving price increases. Micron has said its entire 2026 ⁠high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chip supply is already sold out, a sign of how far demand is outstripping capacity. Its next-generation HBM4 products are now in production. The company emerged as one of the biggest institutional favorites in the first quarter of the year, according to regulatory filings. About 2,440 institutions disclosed new positions in the company, including Rockefeller Capital Management and Schroders. The entry into the exclusive ⁠club signals a sharp rebound from the post-pandemic period when memory chipmakers grappled with a supply glut as demand for personal computers and smartphones weakened due to decades-high ‌inflation. Micron trades at 8.42 times expected earnings over the next 12 months, compared with 22.15 for the benchmark S&P 500 index and 26.23 for the Nasdaq 100. (Reporting by Niket Nishant in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Jonathan Ananda)

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