Jordi Visser does not think Micron Technology Inc. (NASDAQ:MU) is close to its earnings peak.
Yet, he would still rather put new money somewhere else.
The head of AI Macro Nexus Research at 22V Research told Benzinga in an exclusive interview on Tuesday that he bought Micron shares over the past three months, as the stock fell below $1,000.
The position is smaller than the one he sold in May. Now, his favorite areas are optics companies and crypto.
Visser Sees No Earnings Peak for Micron
Micron was down 5.5% at $934 on Tuesday afternoon, on track for a fourth straight decline. It trades 23% below its June 25 record close.
In Seoul, SK Hynix Inc. (NASDAQ:SKHY) dropped 10.1% and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (OTC:SSNLF) lost 7.4%.
The pressure came from China.
ChangXin Memory Technologies, known as CXMT, expects to launch a denser server memory product around year-end, the South China Morning Post reported. More supply could ease the shortage behind record memory profits.
“I do not think we are close to an earnings peak for Micron,” he said.
He expects a memory cycle to “eventually play out,” but not in the next couple of years.
Why Visser Prefers Optics and Crypto
Even so, his Micron position will not be as large as it was six months ago.
“I think there are better places to put money for the next year,” Visser said.
“I am focused on the rise of personal/consumer agents now and the beginning of the Vera Rubin data center platform,” he added.
Vera Rubin is the next generation of AI data center hardware from Nvidia Corp. (NASDAQ:NVDA).
“This leaves me with optics companies and crypto (financial guardrails for AI commerce) as my favorite areas going forward,” Visser said.
Optics companies make the lasers and fiber links that move data inside AI data centers. Visser did not name individual stocks.
Among optical component makers, Lumentum Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:LITE) and Coherent Corp. (NYSE:COHR) are up 156% and 51% this year.
Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) traded near $83,100, down 5% in 2026.
Why Record Profits Earn a Low Multiple
Micron reported record revenue of $54.23 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter, nearly five times the level of a year earlier.
Yet the stock trades at about 5.4 times the earnings analysts expect for fiscal 2027, according to TradingView consensus data. The S&P 500 trades at 19.1 times, according to FactSet.
A low forward price-to-earnings multiple means investors doubt the profits will last.
Visser gave three reasons.
“Because memory has historically been cyclical, investors do expect that memory companies are going to hit that cyclical earnings peak soon,” he said.
The second reason is the wider market. The S&P 500’s multiple was 22.2 in January.
Visser said that compression carries “a risk built in that some companies have a terminal value issue from AI competition.” Terminal value is what investors assume a business will be worth many years from now.
The third is interest rates. The 10-year Treasury yield trades at 5.22%, after touching a 24-year high of 5.36% last week.
“With rates rising there is a growing fear that an AI bubble could pop,” Visser said.
“All of this is about the uncertainty of where AI will be in the coming years,” he added. “I expect this pressure to remain.”
Memory Demand Has No Cliff, but Margins Will Fall
Visser compared memory to oil.
“We will need massive amounts for a long time,” he said. “That does not mean that supply won’t catch up with demand.”
“We need more oil every year and supply and demand is close to balance,” he added.
In his view, an AI-driven advance, such as more efficient models, will eventually close the gap between memory supply and demand.
“I don’t think there is a cliff where memory demand drops but margins will certainly drop at some point,” Visser said.
Micron’s gross margin, the share of revenue left after production costs, reached 86.8% last quarter.
His caution extends beyond memory.
“I have a very negative view on all public companies by 2030 based on AI impacting future certainty of all businesses regardless of what you do,” he said.
Photo: Shutterstock
