The sputtering US equity rally cleared a major hurdle on Wednesday afternoon, when Micron came through with a big beat and raise.

There was a ton of event risk around the company’s report. Recall that Micron was almost singlehandedly responsible for igniting the enormous upside inflection in forward profit expectations which served as the fundamental underpinning for the index rally off the Iran war lows.

Between them, Micron and Nvidia are expected to account for nearly a third of this year’s S&P 500 EPS growth by themselves, and more than a quarter of next year’s growth. The index’s YTD gains are in no small part a function of Micron’s 230% surge.

Micron is, of course, one of the big three HBM players alongside Samsung and SK Hynix, both of which are in the news virtually every day. Wednesday was no exception. Just hours before Micron’s report, SK Hynix announced plans for a blockbuster, $29.4 billion US listing.

Suffice to say any evidence that HBM demand’s waning would be viewed as a crack in the load-bearing pillar upon which the AI bull case now rests.

So it was with a heavy sigh of relief that markets embraced a big beat to consensus from Micron on the all-important current-quarter revenue guide. Sales in the period ending August 31 will be around $50 billion, the company said.

That was easily ahead of the $43 billion the Street expected, as was Micron’s profit guide. EPS should be $31/share this quarter, more than $5 ahead of consensus.

Micron also beat on the top and bottom lines for the just-ended quarter, during which sales and profit were $41.46 billion and $25.11/share, respectively, against expectations for $36 billion $20.50.

It’s hard to know what to say about this other than, you know, “huge numbers.” Micron’s growing the top line by damn near 350%.

We all know the caveat(s): This is a boom-bust, feast-or-famine industry. Right now, it’s booming, and the HBM oligopoly’s feasting. Demand’s absolutely insatiable and outstrips supply by a historic margin.

Speaking of margins, Micron’s was — checks notes — nearly 85% last quarter. That’s pretty good, where “pretty good” means 300bps ahead of consensus and double the figure for the same period a year ago.

Sanjay Mehrotra said the results speak for themselves and alluded to the possibility that AI’s changed the nature of the business such that financial results will be more “predictable” going forward.

As for the bonanza to which we’re all witness in 2026, Mehrotra said it reflects “the strategic value of memory in the AI era.” Apparently so.

The shares were up as much as 14% in after-hours trading. That’d be good for about $140 billion in additional market cap, if you’re curious.