American semiconductor giant Micron Technology has announced its complete withdrawal from the consumer memory market by February 2026, retiring its famous 'Crucial' brand after 29 years. This decision results from massive demand from data centers running AI applications, fundamentally restructuring the global semiconductor economy.
In the basement of a dental clinic in Boise in 1978, four engineers founded a small company that would become one of America's semiconductor giants. Nearly five decades later, Micron Technology is making a fateful decision that reflects a radical shift in hardware industry economics: a complete withdrawal from the consumer memory market by February 2026, and the discontinuation of its 29-year-old 'Crucial' brand.
The withdrawal decision stems from unprecedented demand from data centers running artificial intelligence applications, which pay significantly higher prices compared to individual consumers. Sumit Sadana, Micron's Executive Vice President, clarified that the company is making this difficult decision to improve supply and support for strategic customers in the fastest-growing sectors. Micron is the world's third-largest producer of dynamic memory with a 20% market share, positioned between the Korean giants Samsung (43%) and SK Hynix (35%).
The numbers reveal the scale of the shift: Micron achieved record revenues of $37.38 billion in 2025, with nearly 50% annual growth, driven primarily by AI applications and data centers which constituted 56% of total revenue. In contrast, consumer memory prices have risen sharply, with 32GB unit prices jumping 163-619% in global markets since September 2025.
Micron's withdrawal radically alters the consumer memory market landscape, forcing other brands like Corsair and G.Skill to compete more fiercely for shares from the remaining major producers, who are increasingly focused on producing high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators. This focus creates vulnerabilities in the supply chain and may lead to limited product availability and higher prices for consumers and small businesses.
Micron's decision points to a long-term structural shift, as the AI infrastructure boom differs fundamentally from previous technological transformations. The target market for semiconductors in data centers is expected to grow from $209 billion in 2024 to around $500 billion by 2030. Manufacturers' investments are now concentrated on applications offering higher returns, redirecting global manufacturing capacity away from traditional consumer markets.
The retirement of the 'Crucial' brand marks the end of an era where memory manufacturers could simultaneously and profitably serve both consumer and enterprise sectors. Demand for AI memory has become the dominant driver of semiconductor industry growth, imposing profound economic shifts that will continue to shape the global technology landscape for years to come.
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