Micron $MU ( ▲ 7.31% ) is making a major shift. The company announced it will exit its consumer chip business, known as Crucial, as it reorients everything around surging AI demand. Leadership said memory and storage supply is tightening fast as hyperscalers scramble for more high-bandwidth memory, and they want resources directed toward the customers driving the biggest growth.
Crucial shipments will stop at the end of February 2026. The move is notable because Crucial has actually been performing well. Sales in Micron’s mobile and client segment, where Crucial lives, jumped 25 percent year over year in the latest quarter. But that growth is tiny compared to the more than 200 percent revenue surge in Micron’s cloud memory division, which builds high-bandwidth chips for AI data centers.
Margins tell the same story. The mobile and client business runs at 29 percent operating margins, while the cloud-focused unit operates at 48 percent. With SK Hynix already sold out of next year’s memory supply and AI models getting bigger by the month, Micron is effectively clearing the runway to chase the part of the business with the most upside.
The consumer brand had a long run, but the AI era is rewriting priorities in real time. Micron’s bet is simple. Follow the demand.