Should You Forget Micron Technology and Buy This Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock Instead? – The Motley Fool

Micron Technology stock has room to run higher, but there's another memory company that's leaving it in the dust.
Micron Technology (MU 0.60%) has been in red-hot form on the stock market in recent months, with shares of the memory specialist jumping by an incredible 222% in the last six months alone.
Investors have been piling into Micron stock to capitalize on the supply-constrained memory market, where demand for both compute and storage chips is skyrocketing to support artificial intelligence (AI) applications in the cloud. There is a strong possibility that Micron's red-hot run will continue, especially given that the memory shortage is expected to persist until at least 2028, according to industry watchers.
But what if I told you there's another memory industry participant growing faster than Micron and trading at an almost identical valuation? Let's take a closer look at this name and check why it may turn out to be a better AI stock to buy.
Image source: Micron Technology.
Sandisk (SNDK 0.72%) stock has jumped by an eye-popping 1,220% in the past six months, significantly outpacing Micron's terrific gains. Sandisk's outperformance can be justified by the larger earnings jumps the company has seen in recent quarters.
While Micron reported a year-over-year increase of 167% in its non-GAAP (adjusted) earnings in the first quarter of fiscal 2026 (which ended on Nov. 27, 2025), Sandisk's adjusted earnings shot up by 404% in the fiscal second quarter that ended on Jan. 2, 2026. What's more, analysts expect a 13-fold increase in Sandisk's earnings in the current fiscal year, significantly higher than the fourfold earnings increase that Micron is estimated to deliver.
You may be wondering why Sandisk is growing much faster than Micron, even though both companies operate in the same industry. While Micron is predominantly a manufacturer of compute-oriented dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) chips that temporarily store information needed for processing at a given time, Sandisk manufactures non-volatile flash storage chips that store data without requiring a power source.
Micron got nearly 80% of its revenue from the DRAM segment in the previous quarter, while Sandisk is a pure-play flash storage company. This is precisely why Sandisk is outpacing Micron, as NAND flash storage prices are increasing much faster than DRAM prices. Market research firm TrendForce estimates that DRAM prices could rise by 50% to 55% in the current quarter, while the prices of the solid-state drives (SSDs) that Sandisk manufactures are increasing by well into the triple digits, as reported by Tom's Hardware.
With the SSD shortage expected to continue into next year, Sandisk is likely to continue enjoying healthy earnings growth.
Micron's and Sandisk's sales and earnings multiples are quite close to each other.

Data by YCharts.
The incredible growth that Sandisk delivers makes it a better value pick over Micron. Of course, an investment in Micron stock is likely to reap rich rewards as well, but if you had to choose only one of these two AI stocks for your portfolio right now, Sandisk looks like the better candidate.
Harsh Chauhan has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Micron Technology. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
*Average returns of all recommendations since inception. Cost basis and return based on previous market day close.
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