NEW YORK CITY, New York: Micron Technology briefly crossed the US$1 trillion market value mark for the first time on May 26 as booming demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure continued to drive a sharp rally in memory chip stocks.

Shares of the U.S. memory chipmaker rose as much as 19.3 percent during trading before easing slightly. The stock was last up 17.4 percent at $881.60.

The rally accelerated after brokerage UBS raised its price target on Micron shares to $1,625 from $535, the highest target among analysts covering the company, according to LSEG data.

The surge highlights the growing importance of memory chips in powering AI systems as investors broaden their focus beyond graphics processor makers such as Nvidia.

"The need for pure memory has increased rapidly over very short periods of time, and clearly, Micron sits at the center of it," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley Wealth.

"Today's crossing of the $1 trillion mark for Micron is just an exclamation point on the story of the massive amount of demand needed to run data centers in this AI revolution," Hogan added.

While Nvidia dominates the market for graphics processing units used to train and run AI models, Micron specializes in memory chips that store and move data inside AI systems and data centers.

The company's rise also gives the United States a stronger position in the global memory chip market, which Asian manufacturers have long dominated.

South Korea's Samsung Electronics, the world's largest memory chipmaker, has already crossed the $1 trillion valuation mark, while SK Hynix is also approaching that milestone.

The AI boom has sharply increased demand for advanced memory products, especially high-bandwidth memory chips used in AI servers and data centers.

Micron has said its entire supply of high-bandwidth memory chips for 2026 is already sold out, underscoring the growing supply shortage across the industry. The company's next-generation HBM4 chips are now in production.

Shares of Micron have climbed more than eightfold over the past 12 months as strong earnings and tight supply conditions boosted pricing power.