The artificial-intelligence building boom is no longer only a story about one chip designer. The clearest evidence in our checked data is at Micron Technology, a memory-chip maker. Its annual capital spending (money spent on factories and equipment) was $8.386 billion in fiscal 2024.1 In fiscal 2025 it was $15.857 billion.1 By our own arithmetic that is about 1.9 times the year before, and roughly double the $7.676 billion spent in fiscal 2023.1 All three figures come from SEC filings and have been checked against them.
To give $15.9 billion some scale, compare it with Micron's own costs. Its cost of revenue, meaning what it spent to produce what it sold, was $22.505 billion in fiscal 2025.3 So in that year Micron put about 70 cents into new capacity for every dollar it spent producing what it sold. That ratio is our calculation from two verified figures.
The spending is still accelerating
The most recent quarters show the same pattern. Micron's first-quarter capital spending was $1.796 billion in fiscal 2024,1 $3.206 billion in fiscal 20251 and $5.389 billion in fiscal 2026.1 That is roughly three times the level of two years earlier.
Cash has risen as well. It stood at $10.163 billion in the third quarter of fiscal 2025.2 By the third quarter of fiscal 2026 it was $24.995 billion,2 up from $13.908 billion one quarter earlier.2 A company can pay for a spending surge like this only if the money keeps coming in, and these filings show the money arriving. They do not show why. Our verified set has no revenue or profit figures for Micron, so we cannot say how profitable the extra capacity is. What we can say is that cost of revenue rose more slowly than spending. It went from $16.956 billion in fiscal 2023 to $22.505 billion in fiscal 2025, about a third higher.3
What comes next for Micron's cash
Micron is restricted from buying back its own shares under the CHIPS Act. It becomes eligible to restart buybacks on 9 December 2026, though analysts are not necessarily expecting an announcement then.5 Separately, the research firm Lynx Equity Strategies rates Micron a clear buy with anticipated upside of 33%, and rates Sandisk a clear buy with anticipated upside of 49%.6 Those are one firm's forecasts, not facts. The source is a Motley Fool article, and only 31% of 58 claims we have checked from that outlet held up.6 Treat the figures as opinion.
The suppliers around the chips are reporting records
Advanced Energy, which makes power equipment used in chip production, reported third-quarter 2026 revenue of $696 million.7 It said revenue was up 50% on a year earlier and above the top of its guidance.7 It guided fourth-quarter revenue to $735 million, give or take $25 million.8 Our topic summary mentions growth of 64%. We could not tie that to the company's own release, so we use the 50% figure, which is the one it reported.
Impinj, which makes radio-tag chips, reported record third-quarter revenue of $112.1 million.9 Its fourth-quarter outlook is $104.0 million to $107.0 million,10 which is below that record. A record quarter followed by a lower forecast is not a collapse, but it shows not every supplier is rising in a straight line.
Solitron Devices, a small defense-linked supplier, shows the mixed picture most clearly. Net sales roughly doubled, up 101% to about $5.44 million. Backlog (orders accepted but not yet delivered) rose 28% to $23.34 million. But new orders fell 48% to $1.45 million.11 The company says it expects sales to stay at this level or higher for the rest of fiscal 2027.11 That forecast rests on orders already in hand, not on new ones arriving. Note that these results are the company's own press release, and the wire service that carried it has been right on 35% of 3,660 claims we checked.11
Deals and consolidation
Nvidia is securing its supply of high-bandwidth memory, the fast memory AI chips depend on. Raj Mirpuri said the expansion with SK Hynix will include “a co-develop opportunity for us on the next-generation SK Hynix AI memory, and this will help us secure a stable supply of HBM memory.”4 That is a statement about supply, a quiet sign that memory is a bottleneck. The source reports about $950 billion in new AI agreements signed at a 24 July summit.4 That article's outlet has a 53% hit rate on 6,376 checked claims, better than most in this piece but far from perfect.4
Skyworks and Qorvo have named the expected leadership of their combined company, and Bob Bruggeworth said the announcement reflects “the strong partnership that has shaped our integration planning efforts from the very beginning.”12 In France, Bull and Kalray announced a collaboration on networking for AI and high-performance computing.13 Our topic summary also mentions SambaNova weighing a 2027 US listing. The Crunchbase piece we hold says the window for new stock-market listings is narrowing,17 but the excerpt does not confirm the SambaNova detail, so we do not state it as fact.
One insider data point is worth knowing. Lattice Semiconductor's senior vice president Esam Elashmawi reported selling 16,773 shares on 16 and 17 August 2026 at a weighted average of $134.56 per share.14 Insiders sell for many reasons, and this alone says little about the company's prospects.
Moving data, not just adding chips
The industry is also working on how data moves between chips. GlobalFoundries signed a letter of intent with the US Commerce Department for a $300 million award to speed up silicon photonics, which moves data using light.15 AMD's Mark Papermaster said: “As AI systems scale, moving data efficiently is as critical as increasing compute performance.”15 A letter of intent is not yet a completed award.
On the edge-AI side, Harvest Praxis launched its “Hyper AI Brain” on 22 October 2026, an on-device computing platform built on MediaTek's 3nm chip.16
A longer-term question: is waste heat unavoidable?
Hannah Earley, cofounder and chief technology officer of Vaire Computing, argues that waste heat is a design choice, not an inevitable cost. Her startup is building chips that recycle energy usually lost as heat, an approach called reversible computing.18 She says of her approach: “I want to tackle every part of how computers are built, and rethink it in these terms.”18 She calls the key component, a resonator, “really a glorified pendulum.”18 This is research and early-stage company ambition, not revenue. Be cautious with the source too: only 6% of 16 claims we checked from that outlet held up. That is a small sample, but a weak one.18
What to watch
- Micron after 9 December. Whether it announces a buyback, and whether capital spending keeps rising against its record cash pile.5
- Advanced Energy's fourth quarter. The company guided to $735 million, give or take $25 million.8
- Impinj's guidance. Its fourth-quarter outlook sits below the third-quarter record.9,10
- Solitron's orders. Backlog is up, but new orders fell 48%.11
- Whether the GlobalFoundries letter of intent becomes a signed award.15
Do you already own these companies? Our data does not say what share of any index fund they make up, so check your fund's holdings list. This article is analysis of checked data, not investment advice.
