Gate Institute: The market value of the three giants is broken by hundreds of millions

Summary

• THE TOTAL MARKET VALUE OF THE GLOBAL STORAGE TRACK HAS INCREASED DRAMATICALLY, WITH THE MARKET VALUE OF THE THREE GIANTS, TRISTAR ELECTRONICS, SK HERCULES AND AMERICAN LIGHT TECHNOLOGY EXCEEDING TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS。
• AS AI ' S LARGE MODEL TRAINING AND REASONING DEMAND CONTINUES TO GROW, THE DEMAND AND VALUE OF DATA CENTRES FOR STORED PRODUCTS SUCH AS HIGH BANDWIDTH MEMORY HBM, DDR5, ENTERPRISE-LEVEL SSD IS BEING SIGNIFICANTLY RAISED。
• American light technology has recently entered the trillion-dollar market value club, one of the most interesting re-evaluations in the AI storage chain. According to StockAnalysis data, as at 3 June 2026, the market value of American light was about $1.17 trillion。
• THE CORE OF THE CURRENT STORAGE TRACK AND THE NON-TRADITIONAL DRAM CYCLE REBOUND WERE THE MARKET STARTING TO REPRICING AI SERVERS, HIGH BANDWIDTH MEMORY HBM, LONG-TERM SUPPLY AGREEMENTS LTA AND THE STRUCTURAL VALUE OF SUPPLY AND DEMAND CONSTRAINTS IN THE STORAGE INDUSTRY。
• Gate formally introduces stock transactions where users can directly use USDT to trade assets such as shares and ETFs in mainstream securities markets within the platform. The stock contract area has been renewed online to support the USDT settlement and 1-20 leverage two-way transactions. Gate has also introduced leverage ETF tokens to provide investors with stock openings。
• THE MARKET VALUE OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN LIGHT IS NOT THE RESULT OF A SINGLE PERFORMANCE CYCLE, BUT RATHER REFLECTS THE COMBINED EFFECT OF AI STOCK VALUE REVALUATION, HBM PRODUCT UPGRADES, LTA MECHANISMS AND INDUSTRY DEMAND AND SUPPLY IMPROVEMENTS。

AI DRIVEN STORAGE TRACK

IN THE PAST, THE STORAGE INDUSTRY WAS OFTEN SEEN AS A TYPICAL STRONG CYCLICAL BLOCK, AND BUSINESS PROFITS WERE HIGHLY DEPENDENT ON SUPPLY AND DEMAND VOLATILITY AND PRICE ELASTICITY. IN THE AI ERA, HOWEVER, STORAGE IS GRADUALLY BEING UPGRADED FROM GENERAL HARDWARE TO A CRITICAL RESOURCE IN COMPUTING INFRASTRUCTURE。

LARGE MODEL TRAINING AND REASONING REQUIRE NOT ONLY GREATER GPU AND INTERCONNECTIVITY, BUT ALSO A COMBINATION OF HIGHER BANDWIDTH, LARGER CAPACITY AND LOWER TIMESCALE STORAGE SYSTEMS. BOTH HBM ON THE GPU SIDE AND DDR5 ON THE SERVER SIDE, AND ENTERPRISE-LEVEL SSD, ARE CLEARLY GAINING IN IMPORTANCE. FOR CLOUD MANUFACTURERS AND DATA CENTRE CLIENTS, STORAGE IS NOT JUST A COST ITEM, BUT A KEY VARIABLE THAT AFFECTS THE EFFICIENCY OF MODEL TRAINING, REASONING AND OVERALL DEPLOYMENT COSTS。

AI CHANGES BROUGHT ABOUT BY THE EXPANSION OF APPLICATIONS ARE NOT ONLY AN INCREASE IN THE VOLUME OF CHIPS STORED AND, MORE IMPORTANTLY, AN INCREASE IN THE SHARE OF HIGH-END PRODUCTS. HBM HAS A HIGHER BANDWIDTH, HIGHER INTEGRATION AND HIGHER VALUE ADDED THAN REGULAR DRAM; ENTERPRISE-LEVEL SSD ALSO BENEFITS FROM INCREASED DATA CENTRE LOADS. AS THE PRODUCT MIX MOVES IN A HIGH PERFORMANCE DIRECTION, THE REVENUE STRUCTURE OF THE HEAD MANUFACTURER, THE PROFIT MARGIN STRUCTURE AND THE VALUATION FRAMEWORK MAY CHANGE。

IN CONTRAST TO THE TRADITIONAL LOGIC OF HISTORICALLY “HIGH PRICE OR INCREASED PRODUCTION”, HIGH-END STORAGE PRODUCTS, SUCH AS HBMS, ARE SUBJECT TO MANUFACTURING PROCESSES, PROBABILITIES, ADVANCED SEALING AND CUSTOMER AUTHENTICATION, WITH RELATIVELY LIMITED RELEASE SPEED. AT THE SAME TIME, CORE CLIENTS ARE MORE INCLINED TO LOCK CAPACITY AND PARTIAL PRICES THROUGH LONG-TERM SUPPLY AGREEMENTS, WHICH HAS RESULTED IN HIGHER INCOME VISIBILITY AND BARGAINING POWER FOR HEAD PRODUCERS THAN IN THE PAST, AS WELL AS IN A STRONGER STRUCTURAL CHARACTER OF THE LANDSCAPE。

Microron Technology, Inc., NASDAQ: MU was founded in 1978 with headquarters in Boyce, Idaho, United States, and is the world ' s leading provider of semiconductor storage and storage solutions. The company primarily designs, manufactures and sells DRAM, NAND Flash, NOR Flash, high bandwidth memory HBM, SSD and electronic storage products for data centres, mobile equipment, automobiles, industry and consumption. As a case study, it is not intended to focus articles on a single stock, but rather to reflect more typically the evolution of the AI storage track in product spectrum, client structure, performance elasticity and market pricing。

Light technology

In the global chip storage industry, American Light and Samsung Electronics and SK Hercules are listed as major DRAM suppliers and are also important participants in the global NAND market. As the demand for large model training and reasoning continues to grow, the demand of AI servers for high bandwidth memory HBMs, high volume DDR5 and enterprise-level SSDs has increased rapidly. Storage chips are no longer part of the generic computing device, but are becoming one of the key bottlenecks in the AI computing infrastructure. In particular, in the GPU cluster, HBM bandwidth, capacity and power-consuming performance directly affect the performance of AI chips, resulting in the re-inclusion of luminaries into core suppliers of the AI semiconductor industrial chain. This report views U.S. light technology as an important representative of the AI storage industry chain and analyses its multibillion-dollar market breakthroughs, long-term agreements, HBM growth, valuation restructuring and Gate stock-related transaction support。

Basic analysis and investment logic

As of 3 June 2026, US$ 1,056 was quoted for US$ 1,110 million in US$ 1.17 trillion in total market value, based on approximately 1.1 billion of diluted gross equity. Over the past year, U.S. Light Technologies (MU) as a whole has shown a marked rise in shock and eventually accelerated breakthroughs. After a phased adjustment, the stock price, which started near approximately $110, was steadily rising to over $400, with the expected gradual strengthening of AI storage requirements; it was again driven by the outbreak of HBM and AI data centre demand, rising sharply from May to June, reaching a maximum of $1,076, an aggregate increase of about 8 times more than a year. Over the past year, the price of American light stock rose from about $110 to around $1,056, with a cumulative increase of more than 800 per cent, and the company ' s market value shrunk by $1 trillion, reflecting the market ' s ongoing revaluation of AI storage needs and the future of HBM operations。

IN TERMS OF BUSINESS STRUCTURE, LIGHT CURRENTLY TARGETS FOUR MAIN AREAS OF APPLICATION: DATA CENTRES AND CLOUD COMPUTING, INCLUDING AI SERVERS, ENTERPRISE SERVERS AND NETWORK EQUIPMENT; MOBILE TERMINALS, INCLUDING SMARTPHONES AND BOARD EQUIPMENT; STORAGE OPERATIONS, INCLUDING ENTERPRISE LEVEL AND CLIENT SSD; AND EMBEDDED OPERATIONS, INCLUDING ELECTRONIC APPLICATIONS FOR VEHICLES, INDUSTRY AND CONSUMPTION. AS CAPITAL EXPENDITURE FOR AI DATA CENTRES CONTINUES TO EXPAND, DATA CENTRE-RELATED STORAGE NEEDS ARE BECOMING THE FASTEST-GROWING AND MOST PROFITABLE BUSINESS ORIENTATION。

THE MARKET VALUE OF THE CURRENT US$ TRILLION IS NOT SIMPLY FROM THE TRADITIONAL STORAGE CYCLE REBOUND, BUT FROM THE RE-PRICING OF ITS STRATEGIC VALUE IN THE AI INFRASTRUCTURE INDUSTRY CHAIN. FY2026 Q2 PERFORMANCE SHOWS A RECORD LEVEL OF CORPORATE INCOME, MĀORI, EPS AND FREE CASH FLOWS, WHICH VALIDATES AI ' S COMMON DRIVING FORCE OF DEMAND, INDUSTRY SUPPLY CONSTRAINTS AND HIGH-END PRODUCT UPGRADES。

AI AGE, STORAGE UPGRADES FROM ANCILLARY COMPONENTS TO STRATEGIC ASSETS

IN THE TRADITIONAL COMPUTING ARCHITECTURE, THE STORAGE CHIPS ARE USUALLY CONSIDERED TO BE COMPONENTS OTHER THAN CPU, GPU, AND INDUSTRY PRICING IS MAINLY AFFECTED BY CYCLICAL SUPPLY AND DEMAND. HOWEVER, IN THE AI ERA, ESPECIALLY FOLLOWING THE CONTINUED EXPANSION OF LARGE MODEL TRAINING AND REASONING, MEMORY BANDWIDTH, CAPACITY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY HAVE BECOME KEY BOTTLENECKS FOR THE RELEASE OF AI SYSTEMS。

In the FY2026 Q2 Performance Bulletin, Migwang made it clear that the record Q2 performance reflected “the strategic value stored in the AI age”. The company CEO Sanjay Mehrotra stated that in the AI era, storage had become a strategic asset of clients. This indicates that USG management has positioned the company from a traditional storage supplier to a core participant in the AI computing infrastructure。

THE FAST-GROWING DEMAND OF AI SERVERS FOR HBM, HIGH-VOLUME DRAM, DDR5 AND ENTERPRISE-LEVEL SSD HAS LED TO A SIGNIFICANT INCREASE IN THE VALUE OF STORED PRODUCTS IN THE SERVER BOM. WITH THE EXPANSION OF GPU CLUSTERS, CLIENTS ARE FOCUSING NOT ONLY ON CHIP COMPUTING CAPABILITIES, BUT ALSO INCREASINGLY ON THE STABILITY OF STORAGE SUPPLIES, MATCHING PERFORMANCE, AND THE CONTROLABILITY OF DEPLOYMENT COSTS. THIS CHANGE HAS BROUGHT GREATER BARGAINING POWER AND GREATER PROFITABILITY TO BEAUTY。

FY2026 Q2 PERFORMANCE VALIDATION DEMAND INTENSITY

US$ 23,866 million in income from US$ FY2026 Q2 represents a substantial increase from the previous quarter of US$ 136.4 billion and a significant increase from the same period last year of US$ 805 billion. The net profits of the company, Non-GAAP, reached $142.0 billion, the net profits of Non-GAAP EPAS reached $12.20 million, the operating cash flow reached $2.90 billion and the adjusted free cash flow reached $6.90 billion。

More crucial is the simultaneous improvement in the quality of profits. The FY2026 Q2 Non-GAAP Māori rate reached 74.9 per cent, a significant increase from 56.8 per cent in the previous quarter and 37.9 per cent in the same period last year; and the Non-GAAP operating profit margin reached 69.0 per cent, a significant expansion from 47.0 per cent in the previous quarter and 24.9 per cent in the same period last year。

This suggests that beauty is not driven by income growth alone, but by a combined improvement in product prices, product structure and cost efficiency. For storage companies, the Māori ratio has risen from 30 to 40 per cent to over 70 per cent, meaning that there has been a significant change in the supply-demand relationship in the industry and in the company ' s product mix。

Data centres and cloud operations at the heart of growth

FROM AN OPERATIONAL POINT OF VIEW, THE GROWTH OF SY2026 Q2 IS HIGHLY CONCENTRATED IN THE DIRECTION OF AI AND DATA CENTRES。

Cloud Memory Business Unit earned $7,749 million, a Maori rate of 74 per cent and an operating profit margin of 66 per cent. Core Data Center Business Unit earned $5.687 billion, a Māori rate of 74 per cent and an operating profit margin of 67 per cent. The combined revenues of the two operations, which exceed $13.4 billion, have become the most important engine of growth for companies。

THIS INDICATES A SHIFT IN THE FOCUS OF AMERICAN LIGHT OPERATIONS FROM CONVENTIONAL ELECTRONIC CYCLES SUCH AS PCS AND MOBILE PHONES TO CLOUD COMPUTING, AI SERVERS AND DATA CENTRES. COMPARED TO CONSUMER ELECTRONICS, AI DATA CENTRE CLIENTS HAVE CHARACTERISTICS SUCH AS HIGH CAPITAL EXPENDITURE, HIGH PRODUCT PERFORMANCE AND STRONG SUPPLY CONTINUITY REQUIREMENTS, MAKING IT EASIER TO DEVELOP HIGH-END PRODUCT PREMIUMS AND LONG-TERM SUPPLY RELATIONSHIPS。

HBM AND HIGH-END DRAM DRIVING PRODUCT STRUCTURAL UPGRADING

THE MOST OBVIOUS PRODUCT DIRECTIONS OF THE BEAUTY LIGHT ARE HBM AND THE HIGH END DRAM. HBM IS A KEY STORAGE PRODUCT IN AI GPU AND ACCELERATOR WITH HIGH BANDWIDTH, HIGH CAPACITY AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY FEATURES, WITH SINGLE GB PRICES AND MĀORI RATES HIGHER THAN NORMAL DRAM。

UBS PREDICTS THAT IN 2027, THE HBM ASP WILL GROW BY ABOUT 50 PER CENT OVER THE SAME PERIOD AND CONTRIBUTE TO THE CONTINUED EXPANSION OF HBM INCOME. WITH THE EVOLUTION OF THE AI CHIP PLATFORM, THE HBM CAPACITY AND BANDWIDTH DEMAND IS EXPECTED TO INCREASE THE SHARE OF U.S. LIGHT THROUGH HBM3E, SUBSEQUENT HBM PRODUCTS AND ADVANCED CONTAINMENT PACKAGES。

THE POINT OF PRODUCT STRUCTURAL UPGRADING IS THAT BEAUTY IS NO LONGER JUST FOLLOWING INDUSTRY DRAM AVERAGE PRICES, BUT RATHER OBTAINING STRONGER PRICING RIGHTS THROUGH HIGH-END PRODUCTS. THE INCREASE IN THE HBM RATIO WILL LEAD TO AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE COMPANY ' S OVERALL MĀORI RATIO AND PROFITABILITY STABILITY。

Increased price elasticity due to supply constraints in industry

THE STRONG PERFORMANCE OF SY2026 Q2 IS ALSO DUE TO SUPPLY CONSTRAINTS IN THE INDUSTRY. PERFORMANCE IS DRIVEN BY A STRONG DEMAND ENVIRONMENT, A TIGHT SUPPLY OF INDUSTRIES AND CORPORATE ENFORCEMENT. SOME AGENCIES EXPECT THAT THE SUPPLY OF THE DRAM INDUSTRY WILL CONTINUE UNTIL AT LEAST THE SECOND QUARTER OF 2028 AND THAT THE SUPPLY OF NAND WILL CONTINUE UNTIL THE FOURTH QUARTER OF 2027. DRAM AND NAND PRICES ARE SUSTAINED IN A SUPPLY-RESTRICTED ENVIRONMENT, AND REVENUES AND PROFITABILITY ARE EXPECTED TO REMAIN HIGH。

MORE IMPORTANTLY, THE CURRENT CYCLE IS DIFFERENT FROM THE PAST. IN THE PAST, STORAGE MANUFACTURERS TENDED TO EXPAND RAPIDLY AFTER PRICE INCREASES, EVENTUALLY LEADING TO OVERSUPPLY AND FALLING PRICES. HOWEVER, THE DEMAND FOR HIGH-END MEMORY FROM AI SERVERS IS GROWING MORE RAPIDLY, AND HBM CAPACITY EXPANSION IS LIMITED BY TECHNOLOGY, PROBABILITIES, ADVANCED SEALING AND CUSTOMER CERTIFICATION CYCLES, SO SUPPLY RELEASES ARE NOT EASY TO QUICKLY CATCH UP WITH DEMAND。

LONG-TERM SUPPLY AGREEMENTS (LTA) TO INCREASE PROFITABILITY

LTA, known as Long-Term Agreement, is a long-term supply agreement. In the semiconductor storage industry, LTA usually refers to an early agreement between the supplier and the core customer on the supply arrangements for the future period, including the volume of the procurement, the delivery cycle, product specifications and, in part, the price framework. In the past, the storage industry's procurement agreements were more oriented towards “lock-free prices”. Clients commit themselves in advance to a certain volume of purchases and suppliers gain some visibility of demand, but prices continue to follow rapid fluctuations in supply and demand in the DRAM, NAND markets. As a result, when the industry enters its next cycle, the sharp decline in prices will still have a direct impact on the revenues and profits of storage plants such as Light, Samsung and SK Hercules。

LTA IS ANOTHER KEY LOGIC OF THE BEAUTY VALUATION REVALUATION. THE NEW LTA LOCKS NOT ONLY THE VOLUME OF THE PURCHASE BUT ALSO THE PRICE IN PART FOR A PERIOD OF 3-5 YEARS. THIS IS DIFFERENT FROM THE PURELY LOCKED PROCUREMENT AGREEMENTS OF THE PAST. FOR BEAUTY LIGHT, THE VALUE OF LTA LIES IN INCREASING INCOME VISIBILITY, REDUCING PRICE VOLATILITY AND IMPROVING INTER-CYCLICAL PROFITABILITY. FOR CLOUD MANUFACTURERS AND AI CLIENTS, LTA CAN GUARANTEE FUTURE STORAGE SUPPLIES AND PARTIALLY LOCK OUT COSTS TO AVOID PASSIVE HIGHER PRICES DURING SUPPLY CONSTRAINTS. IF LTA LANDS ON A LARGE SCALE, THE LUMINOUS BUSINESS MODEL WILL GRADUALLY SHIFT FROM CONVENTIONAL CYCLICAL COMPANIES TO SEMICONDUCTOR SUPPLIERS WITH LONG-TERM ORDERS, STABLE CASH FLOWS AND HIGHER CUSTOMER STICKINESS。

Restructuring of profit and cash flow support valuation

MERCURE FY2026 Q2 ADJUSTED FREE CASH FLOWS REACHED $6.9 BILLION, AND COMPANY BOARDS APPROVED A 30 PER CENT INCREASE IN QUARTERLY DIVIDENDS. THIS INDICATES NOT ONLY A SIGNIFICANT IMPROVEMENT IN THE COMPANY ' S PROFITABILITY BUT ALSO A MARKED IMPROVEMENT IN THE QUALITY OF CASH FLOWS. IN CAPITAL MARKETS, STABLE AND HIGH FREE CASH FLOWS OFTEN SUPPORT HIGHER VALUATIONS. IN THE PAST, BEAUTYLIGHT WAS UNDERVALUED, MAINLY BECAUSE OF MARKET CONCERNS ABOUT THE UNSUSTAINABILITY OF ITS PROFITS; NOW, IF AI DEMAND, LTA AND HBM PRODUCT STRUCTURE UPGRADES ARE COMBINED TO REDUCE CYCLICAL VOLATILITY, IT IS WELL PLACED TO VALUE FROM THE TRADITIONAL STORAGE CYCLE UNIT AND TO ALIGN WITH THE AI SEMICONDUCTOR CORE ASSET VALUATION。

Gate equity investment product

We'll store the tracks of the most important American stockmarks. Gate has also supported U.S. stock-related trading services in the TradFi block, where users can use USDT to participate in asset transactions such as stock and ETF in mainstream securities markets。

Unlike the market-freshing or RWA mapping models, Gate stock services place greater emphasis on market access capacity and compliance trading systems. Gate equities, which provide users with equity and ETF trading services through the docking voucher, are not chain-imaging assets or derivatives of tokenized shares. Users complete the purchase, holding and sale of equity assets through the Gate account, where the relevant holdouts, gains and losses, the flow of funds and information on company actions can be centrally viewed and managed。

In terms of targeted coverage, Gate equities currently support more than 10,000 equities and ETF assets, covering such mainstream securities trading markets as NYSE, Nasdaq, NYSE Arca, NYSE American, BATS and liquidity networks. The current Gate stock support book transactions will be gradually expanded to 24/7 round-the-clock transactions to provide a more flexible United States equity asset allocation portal for global users。

In terms of product structure, the stock-related trading instruments in Gate TradFi can be divided into three categories, with the example of MU traded products:

Among them, Gate stock spot deals are independent of the traditional CFC system. Stock transactions do not involve a financial rate in a lasting contract, and are different from the likely stock costs of swaps, overnight charges, etc. in CFC products, and are therefore more suitable for users who wish to have long-term equity assets. Compared to this, durability contracts and CFC are more trade-oriented instruments that are suitable for direct trading or risk management of short- and medium-term price fluctuations。

With a unified system of encrypted asset accounts, Gate further links digital asset transactions to stock investments. After the user has completed the KYC and met the access requirements of the area, you can access the stock block through the TradFi block of Gate App and stabilize the currency transfer and participate in the transaction through the transaction page or the asset page. This means that the USDT application is extending from encrypted asset transactions to global equity asset allocation。

In terms of industry trends, Gate introduced a stock exchange service that provides users with a single entry point for digital assets and traditional financial assets. For users interested in the AI semiconductor theme, real stock, permanent contracts and access to the CFC allow more flexible asset allocation and transaction management around storage, AI, HBM and semiconductor cycles within the same platform。

Risk tip

FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF TRACK STUDIES, THE FUTURE DETERMINATION OF STORAGE INDUSTRY LANDSCAPE AND CORPORATE QUALITY CAN FOCUS ON FOUR DIMENSIONS: FIRST, WHETHER CAPITAL EXPENDITURE BY SERVERS AND CLOUD MANUFACTURERS HAS CONTINUED TO EXPAND; SECOND, THE PENETRATION RATE OF HIGH-END PRODUCTS SUCH AS HBM, DDR5, ENTERPRISE-LEVEL SSD AND ASP CHANGES; THIRD, THE SUPPLY DISCIPLINE AND GROWTH RHYTHM OF HEAD-WORKERS SUCH AS SAMSUNG, SK HERCULES AND MISANGE; AND FOURTH, WHETHER LONG-TERM SUPPLY AGREEMENTS, CUSTOMER CERTIFICATION AND ADVANCED CONTAINMENT CAPACITY CONTINUE TO REINFORCE INDUSTRY BARRIERS。

This means that storage tracks can no longer be fully understood within the framework of the previous single “price cycle stock”. For researchers, the more rational way to analyse it is to consider it as a semiconductor track “with cyclical properties still in place, but with structural upgrading weights constantly increasing”; the case of beauty light provides a high-resolution sample to observe this shift。

IN ADDITION, WHILE IT HELPS TO STABILIZE PART OF INCOME, THERE IS UNCERTAINTY ABOUT THE PRICE RATIO, THE DURATION OF IMPLEMENTATION AND CUSTOMER COMMITMENTS, WHICH MAY NOT COMPLETELY ELIMINATE INDUSTRY VOLATILITY. THE UNITED STATES LIGHT SHARE PRICE AND MARKET VALUE HAVE RISEN SIGNIFICANTLY, THE MARKET HAS HIGHER EXPECTATIONS FOR THE AI STORAGE SUPERCYCLE AND VALUATION RE-ENGINEERING, AND STOCK PRICE VOLATILITY IS LIKELY TO INCREASE AS SOON AS PERFORMANCE FALLS SHORT OF EXPECTATIONS。

References

• Gate, https://www.gate.com/
• Micron, https://investors.micron.com/node/50256pdf
• UBS, https://research.ibb.ubs.com/openaccess/compliance/79529 1 new.html

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