Nvidia vs. Micron: Which Is the Better Artificial Intelligence (AI) Semiconductor Stock to Own for the Next 5 Years?
These chipmakers operate in entirely different parts of the data center supply chain.
Overview
Between 2023 and 2025, Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) was the market's most obvious artificial intelligence (AI) trade. During this period, the stock went parabolic, surging by 1,180% and turning the chipmaker into the world's most valuable company by market cap. On a split-adjusted basis, that was a climb from about $14 per share to $186 by the end of 2025.
Currently, Nvidia stock sits around $218, up another 17% year to date. This is what it looks like when a company owns a scarce product that's in heavy demand -- in this case, graphics processing units (GPUs).
Details
Micron Technology's (NASDAQ: MU) rocket-like move came a bit later, but hit much harder. Memory chips were an afterthought during the initial GPU gold rush. But as training clusters got larger and inference workloads got hungrier, supplies of high bandwidth memory (HBM) started running short. Prices for HBM soared, and Micron stock responded epically -- rising 239% in 2025 and another 242% so far this year. This type of price action indicates the market has recognized that memory is no longer just another tech commodity -- its supply is one of the key bottlenecks dictating the pace at which data centers can be built.
Source
Originally published at www.fool.com.