Micron vs. Oracle: One AI Stock Is a Clear Buy Right Now

Rising demand for Micron Technology, Inc.’s MU high-performance memory chips and Oracle Corporation’s ORCL cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) databases supports growth. But Micron’s stronger profitability, lower financial risk, and less volatile partnerships may make it a slightly more attractive investment. Let’s look into the details. 

Micron’s HBM Chip Demand Drives Growth 

The demand for Micron’s cutting-edge high-bandwidth memory (HBM) chips continues to rise as AI hyperscalers and data center operators increase their spending on AI infrastructure. Consequently, the HBM chips are facing supply constraints, and this demand-supply imbalance is expected to bolster Micron’s pricing power, boost profit margins, and lift the stock price. 

CEO of Micron, Sanjay Mehrotra, confirmed that strong demand for HBM chips amid limited supply is expected to drive growth. Management remains hopeful about Micron’s net income growth and forecasts fiscal second-quarter 2026 revenues between $18.3 billion and $19.1 billion, up from $13.64 billion in the fiscal first quarter of 2026, according to investors.micron.com.

Oracle’s Cloud and Database Strategy Fuels Growth 

Oracle’s Remaining Performance Obligations jumped 438% year over year to $523 billion in the fiscal second quarter of 2026, showcasing strong future revenue commitments, driven in part by new agreements with Meta Platforms, Inc. META and NVIDIA Corporation NVDA, according to investor.oracle.com. This sharp increase reflects continued customer demand and ongoing capacity commitments on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. 

Also, Oracle’s business model is appealing to customers because it combines its own cloud platform with the ability to implement its core database technologies, including Oracle Exadata Database Service and Oracle Autonomous Database, into other cloud platforms like Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. This allows companies to use Oracle’s database tools directly within their chosen cloud environment, eliminating large-scale data transfer, saving time, reducing costs and improving overall performance. 

Micron or Oracle? Here’s the AI Stock to Buy Now 

No doubt, the strong demand and tight supply of HBM chips will drive Micron’s growth, enhance profitability and support its stock performance. Similarly, Oracle’s cloud services and embedded database services will drive growth and efficiency.  

However, unlike Micron, Oracle faces challenges from its reliance on the unprofitable OpenAI for future revenue growth. The Stargate project with OpenAI and SoftBank Group Corp. SFTBY has stalled amid disagreements, and NVIDIA’s funding commitment to OpenAI is now lower than earlier expected. 

Oracle, anyhow, has a debt-to-equity ratio of 328.3%, higher than Micron’s 19%, indicating higher financial risk and greater vulnerability to economic headwinds.

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In contrast, Micron has a net profit margin of 28.2%, more than Oracle’s 25.3%, indicating stronger profitability and growth potential, making Micron the more attractive buy at this time.

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Micron currently sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), while Oracle has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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