Micron and Qualcomm Forecasts Spark a $400 Billion Chip Stock Rally

On Wednesday evening, shares of computer chip companies shot up sharply, adding more than $400 billion in total value. The big news came from two major chipmakers: Micron Technology and Qualcomm. Both companies told investors they expect to make a lot more money soon, thanks to growing demand for artificial intelligence, or AI. This gave a major boost to a stock market rally that had been starting to slow down.

Micron Technology saw its stock price jump 12% after the market closed. The company said it expects to earn more money in the coming months than Wall Street analysts had predicted. Micron makes memory chips, which are a key part of AI systems. Companies building AI technology need huge amounts of these chips, and Micron says that demand is only going to grow.

Qualcomm also shared exciting news after the closing bell. The company said it expects to earn $15 billion from its data center business by the year 2029. Qualcomm is best known for making chips for smartphones, but it is now shifting its focus toward AI. This move into a new market impressed investors and helped push its stock price higher.

Other chip companies got a boost from this good news, too. Western Digital, Sandisk, and Seagate Technology — all competitors of Micron — each rose more than 8%. Arm Holdings climbed about 6%, while Marvell added nearly 4%, and Broadcom went up 2%. Even companies that make the special machines used to build chips, like Applied Materials and ASML, rose more than 4%.

The strong forecasts came at an important moment for the chip industry. Just a day earlier, on Tuesday, a key measure of chip stocks called the PHLX chip index had dropped 8%. Investors had been worried that the prices of AI-related stocks had risen too high, too fast. There were also concerns that the huge amounts of money being spent to build AI data centers might take too long to turn into real profits.

Despite the dip earlier in the week, chip stocks are still doing very well overall in 2026. The PHLX chip index is up 90% since the start of the year. Micron alone has seen its stock rise more than 260% in 2026. The strong forecasts from Micron and Qualcomm reminded investors that the demand for AI technology is very real, and that chipmakers are at the center of that growth.