This artificial intelligence (AI) stock could make investors rich by the end of 2026

We’re just a month away from 2026 and it already looks like artificial intelligence (AI) stocks are poised for another year of strong gains. As hyperscalers continue to expand their data center capacity, investors understand that semiconductor stocks in particular will benefit.

However, smarter investors are realizing that AI budgets are no longer limited to purchasing GPUs and networking equipment. With that in mind, Micron technology (NASDAQ:MU) It looks like one of the best AI chip stocks to buy in 2026.

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According to a forecast of Goldman SachsBig Tech will spend more than $500 billion on AI capital expenditures by 2026. If you only paid attention to the headlines, you’d think every penny of that was going into corporate coffers. NVIDIA, Advanced Microdevicesand Broadcom. By now, it seems like these three chip designers are announcing new deals or strategic partnerships virtually every day.

Here’s what most investors overlook: As more GPU clusters are built, AI developers are pushing their training and inference capabilities to the max. Those expanding AI workloads face bottlenecks when it comes to memory and storage.

Micron specializes in high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips. Just to clarify how vital this niche is in the chip space, consider that the company forecasts that the total addressable market for HBM solutions will grow at a CAGR of 40% over the next two years and will reach $100 billion in 2028.

Considering Micron’s trailing-12-month revenue isn’t even half the value of HBM’s expected market size, I think the company could be on the cusp of an epic growth arc.

In this context, and since memory demand already far exceeds supply, Micron has a lot of leverage to increase the prices of its memory and storage chips. As such, the company should be able to complement its revenue acceleration with healthy profit margins.

Over the past year, Micron shares have soared nearly 300%. Following that kind of gain, you might think it’s too late to buy shares.

While an increase of that magnitude in such a short period of time would typically leave a stock overbought, Micron is a rare exception to that principle.

Micron’s forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio is considerably lower than other leading semiconductor companies. Even after the stock’s meteoric rise, Micron’s valuation pales when compared to other mission-critical chip players.

In 2026, Wall Street analysts covering Micron expect its earnings per share to triple to about $33. If shares continue to appreciate and reach a forward P/E level of, say, 25 (somewhat more in line with other must-have chip makers), Micron stock would double by the end of the year.

But don’t focus too much on specific implied price targets. The most important takeaway from this analysis is that Micron is poised for explosive growth both in 2026 and beyond, with earnings growth and valuation expansion seemingly on the horizon. As such, purchasing its shares now with the intention of holding them for the long term should result in significant gains.

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Adam Spatacco has positions at Nvidia. The Motley Fool positions and recommends Advanced Micro Devices, Goldman Sachs Group, Micron Technology, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool recommends Broadcom. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

This Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stock Could Make Investors Rich by the End of 2026 was originally published by The Motley Fool