Micron Exits Consumer Memory Market to Meet AI Data Center Demand
According to CNBC, Micron Technology announced on December 3, 2025, it will exit the consumer memory business. The company plans to discontinue its Crucial brand. Shipments will continue through February 2026.
Sumit Sadana, Micron's business chief, stated the company made this decision to support larger strategic customers in faster-growing segments. The AI-driven growth in data centers has created a surge in demand for memory and storage. Micron's cloud memory business unit reported 213% year-over-year growth in the most recent quarter.
The Idaho-based chipmaker is the only U.S.-based memory supplier. It competes against South Korean firms SK Hynix and Samsung in the high-bandwidth memory market. Micron supplies AMD's AI chips, which use 288GB of high-bandwidth memory per processor.
Market Impact on Consumers
The exit leaves consumers with fewer options for purchasing memory products. Tom's Hardware reports that DRAM prices have already doubled in recent months. A 16GB DDR5 chip increased from $6.84 in September to $27.20 by December 2025.
PC builders and gamers face price increases across memory categories. Popular 32GB DDR5 kits that averaged $125 for most of 2025 now exceed $250. The 64GB kits rose from $200 to nearly $500.
Micron's departure removes a major supplier from retail channels. Remaining vendors like Kingston, Corsair, and G.Skill will serve the consumer market. Crucial-branded products will remain available through existing inventory until February 2026. Warranty support continues for previously sold products.
Industry Transformation
AI data centers are consuming unprecedented amounts of memory capacity. Network World notes that DRAM manufacturers are redirecting production toward high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators. This shift consumes three times the wafer capacity of standard DRAM.
The three major memory makers control global supply. SK Hynix holds 62% of the HBM market in Q2 2025. Micron secured 21% market share. Samsung trails with 17% according to industry data.
Memory manufacturers have sold out production capacity through 2026. Companies are booking supply years in advance rather than quarterly. This creates persistent shortages for consumer and enterprise products using standard DRAM.
The pricing gap between HBM and standard memory is narrowing. HBM commanded a price premium more than four times that of DDR5 in early 2025. However, rising DDR5 prices could make standard memory more profitable than HBM by 2026 according to market analysts.
Further Reading
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